exultemus

Author: exultemus

  • Making Sense of It All

    Having recently received the Bishop’s Permission to Officiate in the Diocese of Truro, and having a little more time on my hands, I thought that I should revive this blog. What follows is the text of a sermon I preached on the Second Sunday of Easter at The Church of St Neot, Cornwall.

    The readings for the day were, Acts 527-32 Revelation 14-8 John 2019-31

    Jabberwocky

    ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

    “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!T
    he jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
    Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
    The frumious Bandersnatch!”

    He took his vorpal sword in hand;
    Long time the manxome foe he sought—
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree
    And stood awhile in thought.

    And, as in uffish thought he stood,
    The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
    Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
    And burbled as it came!

    He took his vorpal sword in hand;
    Long time the manxome foe he sought—
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree
    And stood awhile in thought.

    One, two! One, two! And through and through
    The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
    He left it dead, and with its head
    He went galumphing back.

    “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
    Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
    O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
    He chortled in his joy.

    ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

    I’m sure that many of you will recognize that poem from Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. Nonsense poems, of which this, Jabberwocky, is one of the most well known, were popular at the time of its writing. Many of the words are made up, not real words at all – brillig, vorpal, uffish, frumious, manxome. And yet when we read the poem we understand perfectly what is happening. The story, if not the words themselves, makes sense.

    Let’s turn our attention now away from Jabberwocky and to today’s gospel reading.

    This story, like almost all of the stories of Jesus following his resurrection has elements which make it appear at first sight to be nonsense. Here it’s the sudden appearance of Jesus, who the disciples know was dead two days ago, in a locked room.

    But to us it’s a familiar account which contributes to our understanding of who Jesus is and what God has done for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. The first appearance recorded here, on the day of the resurrection, tells of Jesus coming to the disciples in the locked room and greeting them with the words, “Peace be with you” and showing them the marks of his crucifixion in his hands and side – the symbols of his suffering and death.

    He commissions them, “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” and breathes the Holy Spirit into them, giving them authority to forgive sins.

    The second appearance begins similarly. The disciples are again all locked away in the room and Jesus appears and greets them with the same words, “Peace be with you.”, but this time Thomas, who was absent the first time, is now with them.

    Thomas is the one who cannot believe what the others have told him, “Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.” To Thomas, what the others have told him is just nonsense. It is impossible that Jesus should be alive; it is not possible that he could just appear behind a locked door; it is absurd that he could have spoken with them, or said to them anything at all; he must be just a ghost, a figment of their grieving imaginations – not that Thomas believes in ghosts. It’s just a sort of mass hysteria.

    And on the second occasion, a week later, Jesus’ whole purpose in appearing would seem to be to draw Thomas in with the other disciples from doubting to believing. He needs to understand that their report is not nonsense. He wants Thomas to be able to make sense of what he has heard. And so he shows him the marks of the nails, he invites him to put his hand into his side. Thomas’s response is profound, “My Lord and my God!” as everything suddenly makes sense for him.

    What had seemed so much nonsense when his friends told him about the first appearance now makes perfect sense. Of course, Jesus is alive. He’d told them that he would rise again – and they hadn’t understood. He’d spoken about the three days – but they didn’t know what he was talking about. He’d prepared them for this moment: the moment when they see Jesus as Lord and God – for doubtful as Thomas had been it is Thomas who first sees the whole truth. His acclamation of Jesus as Lord and God makes sense of everything for the other disciples as well.

    All the things that Jesus had said, all the things that Jesus had done now make sense for Thomas, and not only for Thomas but for Peter and John and Mary Magdalene and the others as well. Everything has fallen into place.

    And, what is true for Thomas and the disciples is true for us too. This insight that Thomas has is what makes it all make sense for us too – and not just the resurrection itself, but everything that Jesus was doing during his life among us.

    If you read through John’s gospel – and if you never have I thoroughly recommend that you do – it is hard to make sense of all that is happening. There are all these lengthy discourses rather than the pithy parables of the other gospels. They’re clearly important but not always easy to make sense of. There are fewer miracles, but they seem more significant than in the other gospels. They’re clearly meant to teach us something, but we’re not quite sure what.

    It’s only when you get to this moment, in the twentieth chapter (and this is probably where John originally finished his gospel. Chapter 21 feels like a later addition, perhaps by John or a disciple), that everything really falls into place. As Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” the whole of the gospel makes perfect sense.

    The wedding at Cana when Jesus turns water into wine – because he is the Son of God, having authority over all creation.

    Jesus throws the money changers and the pigeon sellers out of the Temple, because it is his Temple that is being defiled.

    Jesus’ long meeting and discussion with Nicodemus, where we learn that God loved the world so much that he sent his Son into the world, not to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved makes perfect sense when we realise that Jesus is God.

    The raising of Lazarus. Again we can only make sense of it because we know that Jesus is God, the Lord of life.

    And so on.

    Everything, read in the light of Thomas’s realisation that Jesus is Lord and God, makes perfect sense. It is the key to what God is doing in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

    The world will say to us that this story is just so much nonsense. And they’re right – in a way – but so wrong too.

    It is when we have come to know that Jesus is our Lord and our God that we can truly understand these events.

    Without this knowledge, that Jesus is Lord and God, the whole story is as much nonsense as Jabberwocky. It makes no sense.

    When Thomas realises who Jesus truly is, he understands the whole truth about Jesus, about God and about himself.

    This is the moment too when all of the disciples finally come to understand who Jesus is. But the moment that we see and confess that Jesus is Lord and God is the moment when everything becomes clear to us. Of course Jesus is risen from the dead. Death cannot defeat God because God is true life! Jesus overcomes death because he is God!

    Unless we can see and proclaim with Thomas that Jesus is “Our Lord and our God!” the whole series of events that we celebrate at Easter are just a load of nonsense. They make no sense. It is impossible. It could not happen.

    Jesus’ response to Thomas’s exclamation is, “You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” is a blessing on us who believe, but is also a constant reminder to us that the resurrection only makes sense to those who see it through the eyes of faith.

    When we understand in the very depth of our being that Jesus is Lord and God we receive this blessing of Christ.

    That blessing is to be the ones who know that Jesus has defeated death and that, through his death and resurrection we share in his eternal life and are called to share our faith and bring hope and salvation to the world.

  • A lot has happened …

    … since I last wrote a blog for this website. A lot has changed, and change makes us afraid but also gives us opportunities.

    I last wrote at the beginning of the restrictions first imposed upon us at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. None of us could have predicted exactly how things might of turned out – still less how some of them have actually developed!

    So – a couple of personal notes first. The first summer of Covid was interesting for me. I learnt new skills as I started to prepare worship while our churches were closed. Each week a recorded a video service which I put online. The first recordings were very rough and took ages to put together. The process got quicker and, I hope, more slick! The most satisfying to produce were the ones for special occasions – Holy Week, Easter, Christmas, Harvest, Remembrance Sunday. Generally though, it got harder and harder to produce services every week and it was a huge relief when we were able to start worshipping in church again – even though the church services looked and felt very different from how they had been before Covid.

    Then, towards the middle of 2021 I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. At the start of August I had a part of my bowel removed and the resulting biopsy revealed the need for chemotherapy. That completed I needed to protect myself from infection so was out of circulation for a good while.

    During that time I decided that the time was right to retire – it was only few months earlier than I would have take that step anyway. A few months later my wife and I moved to a home in Cornwall in order to be a little closer to some of our family. We’re settling in really nicely now, getting to know our way around. I’m settling into church life again – as a congregation member at St Neot’s Church near Liskeard. We’ve been busy making a number of repairs to our bungalow and are about to start redecorating. Soon I shall ask the Bishop of Truro for permission to officiate – as long as my health remains good and the cancer does not recur.

    Enough of me. Now to look a little more widely.

    There can be no doubt that Covid has had some major effects on the churches. Many are getting back to normal, some have grown, some have contracted but I’m sure that all have been challenged and have been changed. Covid, of course is still with us and will be for years to come. It will come in waves, which we will manage but there will be times for all of our church communities when they will be challenged afresh to rethink how they minister in those communities.

    We heard that in the National Census of last year those who self-identified as Christians were in a minority for the first time. This was hardly a surprise – the numbers have been heading downwards for many decades. As a result there have been calls for the Church of England to be disestablished. I’ve long thought that establishment has been something of an anachronism at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Disestablishment is now, I think inevitable. This is now a nettle that the church should grasp and soon it should actively seek disestablishment rather than waiting for it to be forced upon it. I am sure that being disestablished will open as many doors as will be closed for the church. Seeking it ourselves means that we can more readily shape the transition and choose the church that we become. It is, I am sure, or can be, a real opportunity for growth.

    During this year the Church of England will debate at General Synod whether it should change its continual practice and solemnise same sex marriages. I am sure that the change will be hotly debated, but it looks as if the time is now right. Other Western churches of the Anglican Communion have already taken this step, other churches in England already conduct such ceremonies. There will be hard discussions to had within the church and with other churches in the Anglican Communion who cannot sanction such a move, but we, as they, need to exist within our environment and be culturally relevant to our society. Our refusal, so far, to sanction such a change has made the church appear uncaring, judgemental and callous to our society.

    So, much has changed, for me and for the Church. Much will change in the year ahead. All we can do is own the change and use the opportunities it offers us. And we can only achieve this if we are prepared to do it with faith and trust in the God who always shows us the way, always walks with us, and always loves us and calls us to love him and his people. With God we have nothing to fear and can hope in everything.

  • Keeping the faith in a time of challenge

    Keeping the faith in a time of challenge

    Now seems a good time to take up blogging again. It has been far too long – almost three years – since I last posted here.

    A good time – because everything feels different at the moment. Because of the restrictions imposed upon us because of the coronavirus Covid-19 our churches are closed, public worship is no longer possible, pastoral ministry as we have traditionally known it is restricted to a remarkable degree. But there is much more than that.

    Is there an existential threat to the Christian faith because of these restrictions? (See The Spectator, Will coronavirus hasten the demise of religion – or herald its revival?) It’s probably too early to say, but there are those who have suggested that the Church of England cannot survive the closing of its churches, the suspension of its worship and the stopping of most of the ways in which it interacts with its parishes – no weddings, no baptisms, funerals strictly restricted, no pastoral visiting, no social events, no community service. Except it doesn’t really feel like that.

    The response of the churches has been to go online with their worship, something that has been largely well-received by their congregations. A number of churches are live-straming their services, others like the Five Crosses Benefice have chosen to pre-record services which are then broadcast via Youtube or similar platforms. Clergy are trying to strike a balance between what is already familiar to worshippers, used to being in church on Sunday, and using the possibilities that the internet and video-editing software offers them. The services need to feel the same but cannot recreate the experience of worshipping with a congregation. Some of those live-streaming are using live chats on Facebook or Youtube and feeding these into the worship  – requests for prayer, greetings of the peace, sharing news or simply trying to replicate the social experience of attending church on a Sunday.

    Some people have spoken of the way in which their attention to what is being shared in the online services is heightened. Others who have been unable to get to church due to age or infirmity appreciate being able to access worship from their church in a way that has been denied them until now. And surely, the shared act of receiving the worship thus offered is creating a sense of unity and togetherness that is denied us by the restrictions imposed upon us.

    But what of those believers who have no access to the internet? A number of our, mostly (but not exclusively) elderly church members either have no access to these online services or lack the skills to access them with confidence and comfort. The same is true of many who are disadvantaged in our society. Many clergy are printing material and distributing it to those they know who are unable to access the online worship – prayers, reflections on the readings, excerpts from the Sunday worship, news from the parish. We are all asking, Is that really as much as I can do?

    And although we may not be able to hold our coffee mornings, or bible study or prayer groups, or lunch clubs or children’s clubs we are still able to minister to our communities in positive ways. Shopping for our isolated neighbours, picking up the phone and chatting with them or saying a prayer. We can still contribute to our local food bank, either by donating food or with a gift of money.

    None of this seems truly adequate – but that is, at least, partly because it is not what we’re used to. Comments made suggest that what the churches are doing is welcomed and positively received. It is contributing to a feeling that the churches are still very much alive and that we have not withdrawn because there is nothing we can do.

    At the end of all this we should ask ourselves, What did we do that made a difference? What could we continue to do? How have we been renewed and reinvigorated by this experience?

    It’s hard to see how at the moment, but the church might be very different after the coronavirus – and that difference might make us better.

  • We have a decision to make

    We have a decision to make

    Depending on where you look the Pastoral Letter about the General Election from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York has been both praised and criticised. The Daily Mail is excited that the Bishops have seen the light and abandoned trendy leftie causes. So a thumbs up from the Mail which is surely a bit of a worry in itself. In today’s Guardian there is an article gently chiding the Bishops for not being bold enough in their call to Christians to take their responsibilities seriously – Come on bishops, be bold. Promote some real Christian principles, because Anglicans are, according to YouGov, almost twice as likely to vote Conservative as Labour, which suggests that they haven’t quite got the hang of their own religion (Michele Hanson). And all this from an atheist. (more…)

  • My God, how wonderful thou art

    My God, how wonderful thou art

    This is the text of the final talk in a series of talks for Lent 2017 given in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul, Lufton

    John Newton, born in 1725, led an unpromising early life, pressed into the Royal Navy, captured and enslaved, he became the first mate and later captain aboard slave ships. During a serious illness in West Africa  he acknowledged his need of God and was converted. In time, not immediately, he renounced his former life, married his childhood sweetheart and after a time working in Liverpool as a tax collector sought ordination. It took him seven years, because of his life as a slaver and as a virtual pirate, to persuade a Bishop that he should be accepted and was eventually made perpetual curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire in 1764. He worked there for seventeen years until he moved to St Mary, Woolnoth in London, where there is a memorial to him.

    At Olney his assistant was William Cowper. Together they compiled a new hymn book, Olney Hymns, in 1779. The hymns were written not for the church services but for the prayer meeting. (more…)

  • Love Divine

    Love Divine

    This is the text of the third of a series of talks for Lent 2017, given in the Parish Church of St Peter & st Paul, Lufton

    Today’s talk is entitled Love divine.

    While during the Reformation and in the years after it in Germany the Lutherans were singing hymns the situation in England was rather different, perhaps because the Reformation took a very different course.

    The dissatisfaction with the abuses of the Catholic Church and the Papacy were felt by dissenters and reformers in exactly the same way as in continental Europe. The political situation though was the catalyst for change. Henry VIII’s need of a male heir drove him to declare a sort of Universal Declaration of Independence. It was never Henry’s intention that the liturgy or practice of the Church should change but events on the continent together with a growing movement in England made change inevitable. So it was that during the reign of Edward the first Book of Common Prayer was introduced in 1549 and followed in 1552 by the second. However, although the worship was now in the vernacular the practice of hymn singing was not encouraged. (more…)

  • Hail, gladdening light

    Hail, gladdening light

    This is the second of a series of talks for Lent 2017, given in the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Lufton

    Read last week’s talk here.

    Tonight’s talk I have entitled Hail, gladdening light.

    St Ambrose was Bishop of Milan from 374 until his death in 397. Together with St Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (d. 367), Ambrose is considered the father of western hymnody, although it is by no means certain that he wrote any of the hymns attributed to him. What is more certain is that he was responsible at Milan for importing an antiphonal style of singing (in which one side of the choir responds to the other) from the Eastern Church.

    Between twelve and eighteen hymns are attributed to him, four with a fair degree of certainty – although at various times in the past many more have been. He is also said, together with St Augustine, to have written the song which we know now as the Te Deum, although neither he nor Augustine mention it in their writings so we cannot be certain. (more…)

  • As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams

    As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams

    This is the text of the first of a series of talks for Lent 2017, given in the the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Lufton

    I’ve entitled this series of talks Hymns and the Faith. In each of the talks we’ll look at one or more hymns to see what we can learn from them about the history of singing hymns in church, and also about what singing hymns can teach about God, about Jesus and about the teachings of the Christian faith.

    This first talk I’ve called As pants the hart. The hymn was published in 1696 in the New Version of the Psalms of David in Metre by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady. It is, of course, a metrical version of Psalm 42. The original version was much longer than the version we find in our modern hymn books which have only three verses from Tate and Brady’s hymn and a doxology added. (more…)

  • One day at a time

    One day at a time

    We are just a few days into a new year. New years are strange things. Nothing changes between December 31st and January 1st but there is a palpable sense that there is a new beginning, an opportunity for things to be different. Hopes are expressed that the new year will be happy and prosperous (by implication unlike the old year just ended) and we often resolve to eat more sensibly, to drink less, to exercise more, to be less judgemental, to be more patient, to read more, to watch TV less, to sort out the attic, to paint the hall – but by about now we know that those things are not going to happen; life will continue exactly as before.

    Changing our life always seems harder than we thought but transformed lives lie at the very heart of our Christian faith. Paul describes becoming a Christian as a completely new life and as a leaving behind of our old life. How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6.2b-4); So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5.17). Jesus too speaks of change being a requirement for discipleship, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (Luke 9.23). (more…)

  • Sometimes reading the Bible is hard

    Sometimes reading the Bible is hard

    At Morning Prayer throughout November we have been reading the Book of Revelation. To be honest I can’t say that I’ve been enjoying it. Its world view, its philosophical assumptions, its literary style, its imagery are all so far removed from my own experience and understanding that I find it difficult to access and even to make sense of.

    I’m not alone. Throughout Christian history the place and authority of the Book of Revelation has been disputed. To this day some Eastern Churches do not include it in the canon of New Testament books. It is not read in the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Churches, although it is read in Catholic and Protestant liturgies. Martin Luther, at the time of the Reformation called it neither apostolic nor prophetic, John Calvin wrote commentaries on every book of the New Testament – except Revelation. (more…)