Hosea and the One People of One Gd, Making It Real

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels, 9 July 2020 (Feria)

·        Hosea 10.1-3, 7-8, 12

Today’s first reading is from the Prophet Hosea.

We have been thinking a lot about prophets and prophecy recently,

and rightly so.

This is a time that calls for Christian prophecy.

All times are times that call for prophecy,

but this is one of the times when that is right before our eyes.

It might be worth just noting this.

If you knew nothing of the Bible and its own ways of seeing things,

the opening of the reading from Hosea must sound very strange.

Hear it again:

Israel is a luxuriant vine, that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built;

As his country improved, he improved his pillars.

Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt.

[GD] will break down their altars, and destroy their pillars.

Strange, no?

Things are going well for Israel,

and Israel is building more altars, with impressive pillars.

Israel is offering a full religious response,

in recognition for how good things are.

 Yet Gd condemns Israel for this,

and will destroy their religious paraphernalia.

If we didn’t know the back-story, we’d find that, well,

cruel of Gd.

The back-story is of course that these altars and pillars

are not for the glory of the One, Unique Gd.

They are for false gods,

or, perhaps, for false understandings of Gd.

Worship at these altars is lifeless, and indeed deadening.

It is actually 
rebellion against Gd-as-Gd-has-revealed-Gdself-to-Israel.

Which is what we call “idolatry”.

There is, though, a back-story to the back-story.

That is that Gd who reveals Gdself to Israel

makes it clear that this Gd wants only one place to be the place of altars.

There is to be a place which Gd chooses,

a place where 
Gd’s Name and Gd’s Glory dwells.

One place which Is Gd’s Dwelling.

From a philosophical or historical or indeed generic religious point of view,

it did not have to be this way.

It is quite possible to believe in One Gd,

and also believe that you might have several thousand altars,

set up wherever is convenient for worshippers.

Many do.

Belief in “monotheism” doesn’t require

belief in one single Dwelling Place for Gd.

Anything but.

But the Bible is not (or only rarely) directly concerned with religious philosophy (though it contains much wisdom of course).

Bluntly, the Bible is not concerned with

what religious philosophers call “monotheism”

(as opposed to “polytheism”, “atheism” or any other “ism”).

Rather, the Bible is 
a call for personal, existential loyalty to Gd

who reveals Gdself as One.

And...

in having One Place where the One People gather to worship the One Gd

at peak periods,

this Oneness is reinforced.

It is reinforced in the gathering.

Come together. 
Come together as one, to demonstrate

– and yes, I will use the word: to “embody” -

the Oneness of Gd.

The Oneness of Gd isn’t something the people invent. No.

But it certainly does involve a task, for its full realisation.

Come together as one.

This is how I read the Prophet Hosea, although other readings are possible.

You may say: why rub it in?

We as a parish are not yet in a place where we can gather for worship.

We are moving carefully and deliberately.

But why remind us, yet again,

of the pain of our inability to come together as one?

Now is not the time for a discussion about the practical matters.

But it may be necessary even here to make it clear

that even when we can gather (soon, please Gd),

we won’t be gathering 
as we gathered when we gathered.

When we have gathered, we have sat together.

We have rubbed up against each other, at the altar rail if nowhere else.

We have shared the peace, by touch.

Sisters and brothers, these oh-so-natural parts of our worship

will remain impossible, improper, 
because of the risk of serious harm,

to others, if not ourselves.

But, of course, you know, let’s be realistic.

The idea of

the One People gathering together 
in the One Place to worship the One Gd 

was always an ideal.

It never quite happened.

More than a historical fact,

it was an image of how things spiritually are,

of how Gd longs to gather us together as one.

The Hebrew tradition does not use images as most Christians do.

 But we can say that this idea of all gathering together as one

is an “icon” of and within the Hebrew Bible,

revealing how Gd calls us together.

And that spiritual truth, that Gd gathers us,

that Gd is a gatherer (always and everywhere),

is true for us, right now, in our physical isolation,

is one we can hold on to, is one we can make our own, right now.

Truly we are, here and now (whenever and wherever you are hearing this)

One People in one place of spiritual truth,

worshipping the One Gd.

How to live that out?

Amen.   

Sermon: The Trinity? It's Simple, Always and Today. Racism? It's Simply Evil, Always and Today.

Sermon. 7 June 2020. St Michael and All Angels, Little Ilford 

Trinity Sunday (Year A) 

How to preach the Trinity?  

That Gd is both One, and Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

There are many ways to get it wrong.  

Most obviously, preachers get it wrong by going for analogies, images.  

Yes, there [shows] is always Saint Patrick’s three-leaf shamrock or any plant.  

What do you think?  

One Gd made up of three, separate parts?  

One Gd, made up of three sub-gods? 

Doesn’t really work.  

Or there’s water, or rather H20.  

H20 as ice, and water, and steam?  

One Gd appearing in different guises, depending on circumstance.  

But, then, who did Jesus pray to?  

None of it works. 

No analogy can work.  

But... 

even worse is to be embarrassed about preaching in the Trinity,  

as if it were something abstract, intellectual,  

just for the keenies, or neurotic tidiers.  

I want to suggest three things about the doctrine of the Trinity  

which you may not have heard before.  

They may even shock you.  

I cannot argue the full case (that’s for another time and place).  

All I want to do is show you some aspects  

of a different way of engaging with this.  

First shiock: I want to suggest that the doctrine of the Trinity  

explains nothing about Gd.  

It is a refusal to explain Gd. It is a refusal to explain. 

  

You see, the Church, as it was coming to set out the doctrine,  

already knew some things it believed.  

These things were in its blood.   

• Gd is one.  It is not that there just happened to be one god,  but there might have been 47.  No. This is saying that Gd  is unique.  It just makes no sense to think that there might be another Gd alongside Gd. 
•  Gd reveals Gdself as I AM in the Old Testament,  and as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the New.  This revelation is recorded in Scripture, but it is not past. Gd comes to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In our worship we find ourselves 
• within the intimacy of the one Gd,  Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

And we don’t try to explain this.  

We hold it all together, and we enjoy it.  

We adore.   

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

So on this reading it is actually those who come to be called “heretics”  

who try to tie it all up, and explain Gd.  

• So some said that Gd is one, and so Jesus is really only a human being pretending to be Gd, or Gd pretending to be resembling a human being.  
• Some said: Gd is one, and so Christ is “god”, but in a secondary way, a derived way - some demi-god, some reflection of Gd. 
• Some said that Gd is one,  but comes to us sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Spirit, as the occasion demands.  

To these and other explainers the Church replied:  

No.  

If you try to explain it, you end up explaining it away.  

We don’t explain away; we worship. 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 

Second shock: the doctrine of the Trinity tells us one simple truth.  

It tells us that Gd is love,  

and when we say that Gd is love, 

we really mean that Gd is love.  

It isn’t that Gd on a whim decided to make the world,  

and then pretend to be love,  

as if Gd thought: it might be fun to have creatures thinking of me as Love.  

No, love is who Gd really is, 

even before, even outside of creation.  

So there is love within Gd. 

So we need at least something like the doctrine of the Trinity.  

We cannot demonstrate this, of course. 

It is rather that none of our claims makes sense without this claim.  

So we are brought back to the simplest claim of all: 

Gd is love.  

Third shock: the doctrine of the Trinity is  

among the most practical of Christian teachings.  

This follows on from the previous point.  

Gd is love,  

and so, yes, in a sense, the Beatles were right:  

All you need is love.  

Christianity is not a set of rules for all circumstances, 

nor even a vision of a perfectly virtuous community, 

but a call to love.  

But whereas the Beatles might have meant 

an intense reaction or feeling,  

or (to be fair to them) some affection which might indeed last, 

we know that won’t quite do.  

Even when we are in our own minds “loving”, 

we can still be self-deluded and self-serving.  

But the doctrine of the Trinity says:  

embed your true insight that all you need is love,  

within in the story of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  

This will give it the breadth and the depth it needs.  

So the love we need is that of the Father, whose story we know,  

who is creative and nurtures.  

The love we need is that of the Son, whose story we know,  

who teaches, guides, heals, liberates, gives, parties, and sacrifices himself.  

The love we need is that of the Spirit, whose story we know,  

who comforts, who is advocate and life-giver.  

Here is the breadth and the depth we need,

to give real content to the love that is all we need. 

So  

• the Trinity is not an explanation of Gd, but a refusal to explain.  
• It brings us back to the simple truth: Gd’s nature is love. 
• And it calls us to the practical work of reflecting that simple, divine love.  

We might say that the Christian vocation is to find yourself,  

over and over again, just at the cusp of sensing and inhabiting  

the love of Gd, drawing us in and sending us out.  

And how are we, here, now, in 2020, in this world, 

just at the cusp of sensing and inhabiting the love of Gd?  

Since we are only ever just at the cusp of it, we will get it wrong.  

The Church as institution  

and we here in Manor Park and in all church communities  

will get it wrong.  

We will say too much, or we will say too little.  

Nevertheless, being clear that we will get it wrong, we have to speak.  

The love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is a fire  

• that is brighter and more warming than we might ever dare to hope,  

• and a fire that is more revealing and refining than we might ever fear. 

Being clear that we will get it wrong, we have to speak. 

This last week have given us two great images, to anti-icons 

of what it is to oppose the love of Gd.  

The first is the image of one human being – a “law-enforcer” - 

pressing his knee into the neck and windpipe of another human being, 

who was not resisting 

for 8 minutes and 46 seconds,  

killing him, 

while other “law-enforcers” stood around. 

It is not possible that he did that, not knowing he was killing him.  

   

The other “anti-icon” is that of a “leader”   

ordering other law-enforcers” to clear a way for him,  

by force of arms and tear-gas, aimed at churchpeople as much as anybody,  

so that he could walk with ease, 

and stand in front of a Church with a Bible in his hand,  

waving it, like a magic charm.  

It is not possible that he did that,  

not knowing it would make for more division and rage.  

It was provocation to violence. 

It was sacrilege. It was blasphemy. It was idolatry.  

Where do we go from here? 

  

We are, in truth, where we always are.  

We are just on the cusp of sensing and inhabiting the love of Gd in the Trinity. So when we speak, we will get it wrong, saying too little or too much.  

But speak out we must, now against the evils of racism and oppressive power.  

We need as always to pray for one another,  

and for our leaders and people of influence  

in the Church and in the world, 

to pray for the right mix  

• of righteous anger and unbending, loud protest (yes) 
• with proper detachment that makes us wary of self-righteousness, 
• and makes us willing to do the searing soul-searching that alone will free us.  

We pray for one another within the love of Gd,  

giving thanks for the steadfastness of that love,  

Saying Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  

Amen.