I guess that 2009 has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for most of us, it certainly has been for me. I have a visit today to an Opthalmologist to investigate something that has appeared on one of my retina which has to be one of the worst ways to end any year as I have no idea what to expect or how I will respond to it turning out to be bad news. That said, the rest of the year has been a very mixed bag, with going through the selection process for ordination and dropping out at the last hurdle. The struggle to get enough business to keep the bills paid has also been a challenge, one solved by the Tehran contract and which is now apparently in the balance. If the eye doctor comes up with bad news it may be scuppered, and if the Iranians don't solve their internal problems, that could also scupper it. Time will tell I guess.
Still, 2010 is worth looking forward too. The Monk and Mausi have plans. The Monk has sold his flat (Apartment) and will move from these shores in May. He will join Mausi in the Rhinelands and they plan to marry as soon as possible thereafter. So, if I am in a condition to do so tonight, I will be raising the glass to Mausi and looking forward to our future.
Now, where did I put that German lesson.
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Winter holiday
Mausi's end-of-the-year holiday is coming to an end. It's back to the saltmines next Monday. Mausi has enjoyed her quiet time up here very much. Temperatures dropped dramatically and it started to snow almost on the first day of Mausi's holiday. Mausi was very grateful that she didn't have to drive to work for some time. The roads were treacherous at times.
Temperatures dropped to -15 °C for some days. Mausi's rain water barrels had to be whacked open with an axe each day to prevent them from being damaged, which resulted in Mausi taking a shower one morning because the water trapped under an icy cover in one barrel shot out under great pressure. Good thing Mausi could immediately return into the warm house, where the central heating was working overtime.
Anyway it has been fun watching the landscape being decorated by frost and snow to make it look even more beautiful than usual.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
The King Wenceslas feeling....
At least the Page's feeling. My long planned trip to the Metropolis to meet my children and enjoy a Christmas and New Year meal with them promises, if I believe the BBC weather reports, to be a marathon journey with snow, sleet and rain to complicate it. Hopefully there will be salted, cleared roads to follow - and an absence of the juggernauts that make motoring in this country a misery these days.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Sermon for St John's Day
St John the Evangelist and Apostle.
Festal Eucharist 27th December 2009
“What is that to you? You must follow me.”
+May I speak in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
John is certainly one of the most interesting of the people called by Jesus to be a disciple and apostle. We are told that he was the son of Zebedee and brother of James. We are also told that they were “fishermen” but a study of the writing left by John suggests a very well educated one – probably the term used here is a bit like referring to the founder of the Cunard Line a seaman. Certainly the boats recently excavated in Lake Galilee suggest that they were quite expensive vessels, not the sort of thing one could knock up in a backyard with a few planks and some tools. That, in turn, suggests that Zebedee may have been a man of more substantial means than we suppose and his sons probably better connected than we might suspect on a cursory understanding of the scriptures.
The letter and our Gospel readings suggest that John had a deep knowledge not only of the scriptures of the Jewish canon but a deeper understanding of the message he and the others had been entrusted with by Christ. So the “fishermen” become Apostles – from the Greek word meaning messenger. That is the thrust of our Gospel reading for today as well, for two things are happening in that conversation between Jesus and Peter, another of the “fishermen”.
Jesus is calling Peter to be a messenger and in the preceding section to that which we have read today, he cancels Peter’s denials so that the Apostle starts with a clean slate. Looking back Peter sees John following as they talk and asks –
“Lord what about him?”
And Jesus responds –
“What is that to you? You must follow me.”
Now, you may ask, “What is that to me?” The simple answer is that it means a great deal for and to us. For, in addressing Peter, Christ is addressing every one of his disciples and that includes us. It is not for us to know what any individual is called to do in service of the gospels; our concern must be what am I called to do for Christ?
Certainly, as it is now possible to see, each of the apostles had a set of skills, abilities and insights that they were being called to use in our Lord’s service. Some of the Apostles used their talents uncertainly at first and others with more confidence, but they obeyed the call. John had a double task since he was called to be a both an Apostle and to take responsibility for our Lord’s mother as he stood at the foot of the cross. It was not an easy call for any of them to obey, nor is it any easier for us.
Each year it seems our faith comes under ever stronger attack from our governing classes, in the media, in literature and now on bus adverts. It is something I think the apostles would have recognised. The question for us is how do we respond? How do we counter this trend toward a twenty-four hour, seven days a week matrialistic drive to the acquisition of wealth? How do we respond to the powerful voices that seek to portray the Christmas story as a fairy tale? Or which denigrate the message of the Bible by pointing to “discovered” Gnostic texts?
I suggest that, if our faith is to have any meaning, it requires that we respond by seeking to know and understand every aspect of what we believe and why the “alternative” texts and “histories” are false. It is no good simply sitting back and leaving it to the clergy – we are the church and we are just as much disciples as the clergy or the apostles.
I began my sermon by saying that John was one of the most interesting of the disciples. I shall now explain why I say that. John’s gospel was the last to be written, it doesn’t follow the chronology of Christ’s ministry except in general outline. The purpose of it is not to provide, as the Synoptic gospels do, a “history”, but to present to us the wonderful fact that, in Christ, God became human and walked among us; that in dying, he redeemed us in a way that no sacrifice by any human could have done and that in rising from the tomb in which John, Joseph and Nicodemus had laid him, he gave us the greatest gift of all. It is a theological treatise, a history and a refutation of the arguments already arising that Christ was nothing more than another prophet, a great one it is true, but just a very good man. It is the work of a man who has given this more than just thought. It is certainly not the work of a simple fisherman, but of a man who has become an eloquent advocate of the friend, teacher and God he followed around Palestine.
I commend to you a reading of the letters John wrote. Like his gospel they are deeply personal to the writer and instructive in their content for they urge strongly the need to love one another and to work together to ensure that the truth of the gospel is carried to all who would hear it. To John the image of Jesus as “The Light” is a powerful one, one he draws from a solid grounding in the Old Testament. He uses it in his prologue to his Gospel and it occurs in the opening of the letter we read today.
“God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all.”
W e are called to walk in that light, my brothers and sisters, and, like John, we are called to be the messengers of that light. We need to listen carefully for Christ is saying to each of us –
“What is that to you? You must follow me.”
Amen
Festal Eucharist 27th December 2009
“What is that to you? You must follow me.”
+May I speak in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
John is certainly one of the most interesting of the people called by Jesus to be a disciple and apostle. We are told that he was the son of Zebedee and brother of James. We are also told that they were “fishermen” but a study of the writing left by John suggests a very well educated one – probably the term used here is a bit like referring to the founder of the Cunard Line a seaman. Certainly the boats recently excavated in Lake Galilee suggest that they were quite expensive vessels, not the sort of thing one could knock up in a backyard with a few planks and some tools. That, in turn, suggests that Zebedee may have been a man of more substantial means than we suppose and his sons probably better connected than we might suspect on a cursory understanding of the scriptures.
The letter and our Gospel readings suggest that John had a deep knowledge not only of the scriptures of the Jewish canon but a deeper understanding of the message he and the others had been entrusted with by Christ. So the “fishermen” become Apostles – from the Greek word meaning messenger. That is the thrust of our Gospel reading for today as well, for two things are happening in that conversation between Jesus and Peter, another of the “fishermen”.
Jesus is calling Peter to be a messenger and in the preceding section to that which we have read today, he cancels Peter’s denials so that the Apostle starts with a clean slate. Looking back Peter sees John following as they talk and asks –
“Lord what about him?”
And Jesus responds –
“What is that to you? You must follow me.”
Now, you may ask, “What is that to me?” The simple answer is that it means a great deal for and to us. For, in addressing Peter, Christ is addressing every one of his disciples and that includes us. It is not for us to know what any individual is called to do in service of the gospels; our concern must be what am I called to do for Christ?
Certainly, as it is now possible to see, each of the apostles had a set of skills, abilities and insights that they were being called to use in our Lord’s service. Some of the Apostles used their talents uncertainly at first and others with more confidence, but they obeyed the call. John had a double task since he was called to be a both an Apostle and to take responsibility for our Lord’s mother as he stood at the foot of the cross. It was not an easy call for any of them to obey, nor is it any easier for us.
Each year it seems our faith comes under ever stronger attack from our governing classes, in the media, in literature and now on bus adverts. It is something I think the apostles would have recognised. The question for us is how do we respond? How do we counter this trend toward a twenty-four hour, seven days a week matrialistic drive to the acquisition of wealth? How do we respond to the powerful voices that seek to portray the Christmas story as a fairy tale? Or which denigrate the message of the Bible by pointing to “discovered” Gnostic texts?
I suggest that, if our faith is to have any meaning, it requires that we respond by seeking to know and understand every aspect of what we believe and why the “alternative” texts and “histories” are false. It is no good simply sitting back and leaving it to the clergy – we are the church and we are just as much disciples as the clergy or the apostles.
I began my sermon by saying that John was one of the most interesting of the disciples. I shall now explain why I say that. John’s gospel was the last to be written, it doesn’t follow the chronology of Christ’s ministry except in general outline. The purpose of it is not to provide, as the Synoptic gospels do, a “history”, but to present to us the wonderful fact that, in Christ, God became human and walked among us; that in dying, he redeemed us in a way that no sacrifice by any human could have done and that in rising from the tomb in which John, Joseph and Nicodemus had laid him, he gave us the greatest gift of all. It is a theological treatise, a history and a refutation of the arguments already arising that Christ was nothing more than another prophet, a great one it is true, but just a very good man. It is the work of a man who has given this more than just thought. It is certainly not the work of a simple fisherman, but of a man who has become an eloquent advocate of the friend, teacher and God he followed around Palestine.
I commend to you a reading of the letters John wrote. Like his gospel they are deeply personal to the writer and instructive in their content for they urge strongly the need to love one another and to work together to ensure that the truth of the gospel is carried to all who would hear it. To John the image of Jesus as “The Light” is a powerful one, one he draws from a solid grounding in the Old Testament. He uses it in his prologue to his Gospel and it occurs in the opening of the letter we read today.
“God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all.”
W e are called to walk in that light, my brothers and sisters, and, like John, we are called to be the messengers of that light. We need to listen carefully for Christ is saying to each of us –
“What is that to you? You must follow me.”
Amen
Saturday, 26 December 2009
A Christmas treat
The Abbey's musicians gave us a real treat yesterday. The choristers sang the service superbly, putting in their hearts and souls and the organists certainly put in a magnificent performance, both Ben and Carleton. No, there wasn't a duet, but there was a change of organ. It is always amusing to see the faces of our visitors when Ben and Carleton pull the switch like this. Normally Carleton conducts the choir and Ben accompanies on a Sunday or Holy Day when the Parish Choir is singing and yesterday was no exception.
So why the surprised looks from the congregation?
It works like this. Immediately after the Blessing and Dismissal, the final hymn begins. Normally the Milton Organ is used to accompany the hymns, but when the organists are ringing the changes so to speak, Carleton launches the hymn from the Grove organ out of sight from the congregation. Ben then switches off the Milton and stands up and leaves the loft in full view of the congregation ....
Those who know the different sound of the two organs quickly guess what is happening, visitors don't.
So we processed from the church accompanied by the growls and snarls of the Glorious Grove trying to keep a straight face as visiting members of the congregation peered at the empty organ loft and tried to figure out how the organ was being played. And it was certainly being played. Carleton's Recessional Voluntary was a stunner. Vierne's Finale to the 1st Symphony.
It has to be heard on the Grove I think to truly appreciate it.
So why the surprised looks from the congregation?
It works like this. Immediately after the Blessing and Dismissal, the final hymn begins. Normally the Milton Organ is used to accompany the hymns, but when the organists are ringing the changes so to speak, Carleton launches the hymn from the Grove organ out of sight from the congregation. Ben then switches off the Milton and stands up and leaves the loft in full view of the congregation ....
Those who know the different sound of the two organs quickly guess what is happening, visitors don't.
So we processed from the church accompanied by the growls and snarls of the Glorious Grove trying to keep a straight face as visiting members of the congregation peered at the empty organ loft and tried to figure out how the organ was being played. And it was certainly being played. Carleton's Recessional Voluntary was a stunner. Vierne's Finale to the 1st Symphony.
It has to be heard on the Grove I think to truly appreciate it.
Friday, 25 December 2009
Merry Christmas
I'd like to take this moment to wish everyone who reads this blog a very merry Christmas filled with blessings and joy and a year to come that brings everything you hope for.
May the Peace of the Christ child be with you and remain with you.
May the Peace of the Christ child be with you and remain with you.
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Sermon for Midnight Mass
Midnight Mass
Christmas 2009; St Mary Magdalen, Twyning.
“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
+ May I speak and may you hear in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen
The opening paragraphs of St John’s gospel give us a powerful description of the God of creation. It is, in fact, a declaration of the Christian understanding of God. Some time ago I was given a small reproduction of a Byzantine Icon which shows Mary supporting an adult Christ who holds a scroll. The arrangement of Mary’s hands points to Christ and the scroll – this is Mary the Theotokos, the God Bearer and Christ is depicted as the Living Word in her arms.
This is the significance of the babe whose birth we celebrate tonight and tomorrow and for the next twelve days. This is how the Word became flesh – the only way that even God could assume human form and flesh – to be born and to grow as we do into adulthood.
Isaiah foretells this in the prophecy we have just heard –
“The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations.”
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews is quoting Isaiah when he writes –
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”
Our crib shows us the human face of the Christmas story, our Gospel tells us the mystery that underlies it. And here the two most important aspects of this wonderful event meet in a very graphic sense for in becoming human, God has impoverished himself in the spiritual sense. From being the Word spoken at the beginning and to be spoken at the end of all things and all time, he adopted human form at a particular time and place in order to reach out to all mankind and draw us nearer to Himself.
We look and see a stable, hardly a place in which a King who transcends all earthly things and powers would choose to be born, yet that too has its place, for in a crowded Caravanseri there would be no privacy in which the birth could take place. Only in the stable could Mary deliver her child in quiet and without attracting the perhaps unwelcome attention of the other guests.
Today is the celebration of Mary’s delivery of her child, the living Word of God, the Word that was present at the beginning. There is a long road ahead of her now for she must nurture this child and bring him to adulthood so that He may fulfil the destiny He has ordained for himself. But now, on this night, delivered of her baby she may rest, safe and warm in the stall among the animals, her husband Joseph keeping watch over her.
Luke, who’s Gospel gives us a detailed description of the birth and is probably Mary’s own account, tells us that shepherds visited the stable to worship after being told of the birth by angels. Matthew also gives us this witness account and we may be sure that it did not go unnoticed or unmarked.
Of this we may be sure. The birth occurring in a stable in a caravanseri instead of in the home of Joseph’s relatives probably not far distant from the stable, is a part of God’s plan. The babe is recognised by the shepherds as being special and is recognised later by the magi – but passes unnoticed by the rich and powerful.
As John tells us –
“He came to that which was his own and his own did not receive him.”
How do we respond to the Babe? Do we come to celebrate his birth simply because it’s a nice story and it’s what we do at Christmas? Or do we come because we, like the shepherds and the magi, recognise in this infant something greater, something awesome and so wonderful it must be told to everyone?
As we celebrate the birth of this child some two thousand years ago we should be struck by the wonder of what that child is. I cannot do better than St John when he writes –
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Amen
Christmas 2009; St Mary Magdalen, Twyning.
“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
+ May I speak and may you hear in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen
The opening paragraphs of St John’s gospel give us a powerful description of the God of creation. It is, in fact, a declaration of the Christian understanding of God. Some time ago I was given a small reproduction of a Byzantine Icon which shows Mary supporting an adult Christ who holds a scroll. The arrangement of Mary’s hands points to Christ and the scroll – this is Mary the Theotokos, the God Bearer and Christ is depicted as the Living Word in her arms.
This is the significance of the babe whose birth we celebrate tonight and tomorrow and for the next twelve days. This is how the Word became flesh – the only way that even God could assume human form and flesh – to be born and to grow as we do into adulthood.
Isaiah foretells this in the prophecy we have just heard –
“The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations.”
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews is quoting Isaiah when he writes –
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”
Our crib shows us the human face of the Christmas story, our Gospel tells us the mystery that underlies it. And here the two most important aspects of this wonderful event meet in a very graphic sense for in becoming human, God has impoverished himself in the spiritual sense. From being the Word spoken at the beginning and to be spoken at the end of all things and all time, he adopted human form at a particular time and place in order to reach out to all mankind and draw us nearer to Himself.
We look and see a stable, hardly a place in which a King who transcends all earthly things and powers would choose to be born, yet that too has its place, for in a crowded Caravanseri there would be no privacy in which the birth could take place. Only in the stable could Mary deliver her child in quiet and without attracting the perhaps unwelcome attention of the other guests.
Today is the celebration of Mary’s delivery of her child, the living Word of God, the Word that was present at the beginning. There is a long road ahead of her now for she must nurture this child and bring him to adulthood so that He may fulfil the destiny He has ordained for himself. But now, on this night, delivered of her baby she may rest, safe and warm in the stall among the animals, her husband Joseph keeping watch over her.
Luke, who’s Gospel gives us a detailed description of the birth and is probably Mary’s own account, tells us that shepherds visited the stable to worship after being told of the birth by angels. Matthew also gives us this witness account and we may be sure that it did not go unnoticed or unmarked.
Of this we may be sure. The birth occurring in a stable in a caravanseri instead of in the home of Joseph’s relatives probably not far distant from the stable, is a part of God’s plan. The babe is recognised by the shepherds as being special and is recognised later by the magi – but passes unnoticed by the rich and powerful.
As John tells us –
“He came to that which was his own and his own did not receive him.”
How do we respond to the Babe? Do we come to celebrate his birth simply because it’s a nice story and it’s what we do at Christmas? Or do we come because we, like the shepherds and the magi, recognise in this infant something greater, something awesome and so wonderful it must be told to everyone?
As we celebrate the birth of this child some two thousand years ago we should be struck by the wonder of what that child is. I cannot do better than St John when he writes –
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Amen
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