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 for 3rd Sunday of Lent: Happy Easter!

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels, Little Ilford.

Lent 3 Year B

Exodus 20.1-17

1 Corinthians 1.18-25

John 2.13-22

Today's readings are sharp. I mean they can set your teeth on edge, like a sorbet ice-cream. They shock, like getting Marmite, when you were expecting chocolate spread. They challenge us. Which is good. It is Lent, after all.

In the first reading, we have the Exodus version the Ten Commandments. Whatever the details (are they meant for all people or just the People of Israel? etc), their very existence, at the beginning of the revelation to the People at Sinai insists that God can command us, can make demands of us. Gd is not there just to reassure or rescue. But to command and demand. Sharp!

And it gets worse. In the second reading, Paul tells us bluntly that we preach - we must preach - Christ crucified. That sounds as natural as breathing to people used to church-language. But think of what it actually means: at the heart of our 'good news' (if we can call it that), is that our founder was tortured to death as a criminal, if not – let me say it – a terrorist. 

So Christian faith does not begin with us asking what it would be good, important, timely for ourselves and our neighbours to hear, whether to build a Big Society or a revolution for that matter. We start just there, with the image of the tortured-to-death one. Because Gd loves us yes, but loves us by showing us who we are, tied up in violence or the desire for violence in all kinds of direct and subtle ways. Oh dear. Shock!

And it gets worse still. In the gospel, we see Jesus at his most oppositional, judging, and apparently violent himself. In any event, we are a long way from 'Gentle Jesus meek and mild'. Zeal for Gd's House overcomes him. Zeal, or, many would translate – anger, rage. Sharp and shocking.

What is going on? It isn't actually clear. It is unlikely that Jesus wanted a ban on animals and money-changers everywhere on the Temple's vast premises. People had to buy unblemished animals for the sacrifices, and exchange their ordinary money for the special half-shekel to pay their Temple tax, to keep the whole Temple functioning. Remember Jesus does not object to the Temple or the sacrifices as such. (We may be used to thinking he does, but he doesn't.) So it's actually a more subtle argument that things had got out of hand. The tail was wagging the dog. The business around the sacrifices had taken over from the directness of prayer, prayer for all people, not just Jews, let alone just priests.

You can perhaps imagine the Temple PCC meeting. 'Yes, well of course we'd like to keep prayer at the centre of things, but we are struggling to pay the bills. We will get back to prayer, but for now, we need to rent out a bit more space to the business people. It's “expedient”. It's “necessary”. It's an “emergency”.

It's expedient/necessary/an emergency is the excuse politicians use for every unpalatable thing they want to bring in, from cutting benefits from families to taking away human rights to going to war. 

And when the Church does it – makes it harder for people to pray, for the sake of some temporary expediency – this, we learn today, infuriates Jesus. I don't think that is overstating it. (Thank Gd forgiveness is available to churchpeople as well as others.)

So far, so sharp. So far, so Lenten.

But once again I am going to insisting that Lent is not just about our facing up to difficult things about ourselves (though it is that). Rather, Lent is also always already about Easter. We anticipate Easter joy by enjoying experimenting with our Lenten discipline. And Easter too is here in our readings today.

Let us work backwards, since Easter is explicitly there in the gospels: Jesus 'was talking of the Temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this...'. So already – this is only the second chapter of John – we are told that its climax is Jesus as raised from the dead.

And Easter is hidden but present in the second reading, from 1 Corinthians. 'We preach Christ crucified', yes. But you only have to read or hear Paul's letter more than once to know that this crucifixion is what makes possible the resurrection of Jesus, which Paul goes on (in chapter 15) to have much to say about.

And it is important that it is not that the cross is the curse or the question or the problem, and the resurrection is the blessing or the answer or the solution. The relationship between cross and resurrection is more complicated and mysterious than that. They are profoundly one. How can this be? What does this mean? I'd answer that my saying: Stick around! Stick around, and especially make the journey with us from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Eve. I am not saying that all will become clear. But I am saying that we will be able to live the truth of the oneness of the cross and empty tomb more deeply.

Where is Easter in the first reading, from the Hebrew Bible on the giving of the Ten commandments? I might say it is there in the command to keep the Sabbath and make it holy. One day in seven which is holy, which I about rest. Which is in the Jewish tradition called a light and a joy. Which is, let's say it, a foretaste of heaven, among us, for us now. A foretaste of heaven, and so a foretaste of resurrection life, and a foretaste of Easter, and in that way, of Christ.

But I have another suggestion. The ten commandments are actually called in the Hebrew Bible the Ten Words [Exodus 34.28; Deut 4.13; Deut 10.4]. This is Words with a capital W (as there are many more than ten words): Ten Utterances if you like. And in the Jewish ordering of the Ten Words, the first Word is: I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.' And that's it! It stops there.

I am the LORD your Gd – I am the One you already know. We belong together. Moses encountered me in the burning bush. The commandments are not the means by which you come to find me, or please me. You already know me. I have come to you.

I am the LORD your God... who brought you out of Egypt, out of slavery. Who liberated you. Who, when your life was narrow and your hard-labour was crushing, saw you, loved you, who involved myself, aligned myself with you, and freed you. The liberation of the People from Egyptian slavery is of course the theme of Passover. Passover is also a theme of today's gospel, if you look at it again. But it's even more the theme of Easter. Gd is One. There is only One Gd. Gd who frees slaves from slavery is Gd who frees us from death, from all that is deadly and deathly in our lives, from the fear of death. Easter is anticipated in the Ten Words in the Hebrew Bible. Or if you insist 'even' in the Hebrew Bible.

Brothers and sisters, if we are serious about our faith, there is no running away from all that is sharp and shocking in the Bible. It has to be there. But all is in the context of Easter, already. 

Remember, perhaps, what I said on Ash Wednesday, about St Seraphim of Sarov, standing outside Church on Good Friday, eating sausages while others were fasting, and greeting everyone even then with his 'Christ is risen!' On Good Friday! I stand by that, by him. 

So, even if we have taken on a Lenten discipline (a good thing!), let us not only be introspective this Lent. Let us also look, even now, for the newness of life, the raised-up life, which is there for us, and for all. Amen.

Sermon for Candlemas: Merry Christmas!

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels. 1 February 2015.

Candlemas

Malachi 3.1-4; Luke 2.22-40

Good to be back, and back from Mallorca. I saw the Three Kings! Those of you who were at the carol service may remember what I said, about how, throughout Spain, on Twelfth Night, men dress up as the Three Kings, go in procession to church, present a Christ-child figure gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and then give presents to the children of the town or village. And about how (my favourite bit), as they process, the Kings scatter sweeties at all and sundry. 

I am am not just saying what I did in my holidays. I am trying to draw together all that this church has been through since that carol service, from Christmas Day to New Year and the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, through Epiphany and the Three Kings, the Baptism of the Lord to today. In a sense, it’s all one Feast - which is why we stay in white or gold. So, one name for today might actually be: the Last Day of Christmas. Merry Christmas, anybody?

That may be pushing it. And any way, today already has quite a few names. The traditional popular one is Candlemas, which is interesting. Where are the candles in today’s readings? If anywhere, it is in Simeon’s words that the Christ child is to be a Light to lighten the nations. (I wondered if some prophetic soul might pick out the refiner’s fire in the first reading - but if your candles are a refining fire, something has gone wrong.) In any event,  there grew up a custom of blessing beeswax candles on this day, which people would then take to their homes. It might be because of Simeon's words. Or it might just be because we need cheering up. After all, if you think about it, this is actually midwinter now. 

Another possible name for today is the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Doesn’t sound attractive does it? Mary as dirty? Or morally impure? Or displeasing to Gd because she’d done something as physical, as carnal, as giving birth? What to make of this? Well, the first thing to say is that the title is not wrong. The story is about the “Purification” of Mary in some sense. In the Teachings of Moses, a women who gives birth has to seek "purification". It is this purification of Mary - not, incidentally, of Joseph or Jesus - that the gospel refers to, when it refers to the fortieth day, and the offering of turtledoves and pigeons. 

But the second and more important thing to say is that this "purity" is not about the removal of dirt, nor has it anything to do with moral impurity. As I’ve said before - and may just say again - this ritual purity is really about ritual fitness, being fit to work as a symbol in the Temple. And there is a school of thought that says this: the symbolism of the Temple is all about Life (I haven't got time to explain why). And a woman who has given birth is not fit to symbolise life in any sense, because she’s been the reality. She has brought real-life life into the world. So she’s too close to the reality to be a good symbol. It would be, if you like, like turning from lovely beeswax candles and looking directly at the sun. I am not saying that school of thought is right. But it works as a good corrective to other ideas about what ritual purity is. 

The other, more modern and proper name for today is the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. This is indeed the more natural reading of today’s gospel in Luke: the point is that Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple. The problem with this is that nowhere in the Hebrew Bible nor in later Jewish tradition is there any command to bring a newborn to the Temple. The Bible (in Exodus) does say that the firstborn male is consecrated to Gd, but doesn’t tie that up with a particular command. And later (in Numbers) there is the idea that the Levites take over the priestly role of the firstborn. So the parents of a non-Levite firstborn male give a Levite some money, to acknowledge that, thanks to the Levites, their boy has been released from duty, as it were. It’s called the redemption of the firstborn. But it can happen anywhere, doesn’t happen on the fortieth day, and isn't tied up with a sacrifice. So, why on earth did Mary and Joseph feel a need to ‘present’ Jesus in the Temple? Confusing. 

However, there is another name for today’s Feast. It comes from the East, from Orthodoxy. It is: the Meeting. And isn’t this how we can make sense of it? There are two layers of meeting. First, the Temple itself is a Meeting Place, the Meeting Place. It is a place where people met each other, yes. And it is also a place where you meet with the Presence of Gd. Christians sometimes think that Jesus and his followers were wholly against the Temple. But that’s not true. And it certainly isn’t true for how Luke tells the story. Notice how Luke wants to show how faithful, how Jewish, how faithfully Jewish everybody is being in this story. Even if he gets the details wrong, his intention is clear: 

‘When the time came, according to the Law of Moses, they went to Jerusalem… as it is written in the Law of the Lord… and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the Law of the Lord… And when they had finished everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee.’ The Law of the Lord. It’s quite a striking expression. No criticism of the Law, of the Temple, of priests, or of ritual here. Quite the reverse. So Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple which truly is the Place of the Meeting with the Presence of Gd. 

But of course, this is also the meeting of the Holy Family with Simeon and Anna.

‘Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, he took him in his arms and praised God, and said… "a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."’

Much could be said about what Simeon said. And wouldn’t it be lovely to know what words Anna said? But, I’m afraid we better face up to the fact that once again it’s the man in the story who has the speaking part. 

But… just this… can you see how this really is another Christmas story?

‘Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, he took him in his arms and praised God, and said… a light (like a star) for revelation to the gentiles (like wise men) and for glory (that angels sing of) to your people Israel (including its shepherds).’

So, the story is complicated and confusing in some ways, and maybe I've made it yet more complicated. But it's very simple and inviting too. It’s about a meeting. And we meet, and we are or we can be each person in this story.

We can make the obedient journey to the place of the Presence of God. 

We can be guided by the Spirit, if only by not resisting the promptings we have. 

We can take Jesus to ourselves. 

We can praise. 

We can look for the light and glory. 

'a light (like a star) for revelation to the gentiles (like wise men) and for glory (that angels sing of) to your people Israel (and its shepherds).’