Sunday Sermons

Updated for 5th September 2010

Sermons from recent Sundays and major festivals will normally be available here.

Tony Dickinson's sermon for Trinity 14

I hope that all of you have had a good holiday. Did anyone go to the seaside? Did anyone build a sandcastle? Did you have enough time to finish it before the tide came in and washed it away?

In our gospel reading this morning Jesus talked about someone building a castle - but it wasn't a sandcastle. This was the real thing, a big tower made of wood and stone. Except, of course, that Jesus wasn't really talking about the tower. He was telling the crowds about what it meant to be a disciple, what it meant to follow him. He was warning them that people who decide to follow him need to be as careful and as sure about that decision as they would be if they were deciding to build a tower - as careful and a sure as they would be if they were a king deciding to go to war. You need to make sure that you have everything you need before you start building. You need to make sure that you've got enough soldiers to take on an enemy before you march out to battle.

So, if we are serious about being disciples of Jesus - and we must have some idea about doing that, or we wouldn't be here this morning - if we are serious about being disciples of Jesus, what do we need before we start building our tower? What would we use in place of wood and stone?

Well, the foundation stone has to be knowing Jesus. Not knowing about him, but knowing him. How do we do that?

We read the Gospels - and the other parts of the Bible, of course, but especially the Gospels because they tell us about Jesus. And we spend time with him in prayer, talking to his Father God, who is our Father, too.

So those are two very big stones to start with.

And there's a third, very important foundation stone. What do we do when we want to share the company of friends in relaxed way? Very often we share a meal with them. We're doing that this morning. We are sharing in the meal in which Jesus meets us, the supper that Jesus gives to all his friends, the meal in which he shares himself with us under tokens of bread and wine, "bread for his body, wine for his blood", as we shall say a little later.

So those are the foundations on which we build our tower.

But being a disciple of Jesus isn't just what we do in church for one hour a week. Being a disciple of Jesus is something we do all the time. And it isn't always easy. Jesus warns us that there are things that can get in the way if we aren't careful. Being concerned for our own comfort can get in the way. There's a song they sometimes sing at "Lighthouse" which tells us that "It's an adventure following Jesus" - and adventures are sometimes scary, like episodes of "Doctor Who" (except we can't hide behind the sofa). Sometimes God asks us to be brave and to trust him, and not our possessions, or the people around us.

And sometimes those people can get in the way. Sometimes family and friends may want us to do things which hinder us from following Jesus. Sometimes it was those closest to Jesus, people like Peter and James and John, who got in his way and tried to stop him doing what God wanted. They didn't mean to, of course, any more than our families and friends mean to. It just happens - and, if we're serious about following Jesus, we need to watch out in case it happens to us.

And all the time we're building our tower. We're building by acts of kindness, like St Paul writing to his friend Philemon, building by sharing the good things that God gives us, sometimes by giving things up, as Paul gave up having Onesimus with him so that Onesimus could go back to the family where he belonged. We're building by giving thanks to God for the good things he gives us. Even when life is difficult there are things for which we can say "thank you".

So there's our tower, firm on its foundations, constantly being built up as we follow Jesus our Lord: and with God's love surrounding us, as it surrounded St Paul and the friends to whom he wrote, there is nothing that can wash it away.

Tony Dickinson's sermon for Trinity 13

Church notice-boards are wonderful things. They are (primarily) a source of information. But they are also places where we can find wisdom, humour - even wit. I wonder how many of us regularly cast a glance at the latest offering from our neighbours in Hazlemere as we travel north along the A404? Sometimes the humour is a bit heavy-handed (not to say loaded). What's missing from C H (blank) (blank) C H? Answer "U R". I bet that had them rolling up in their droves the following Sunday.

Sometimes the wit is not in what's displayed on the notice-board. Sometimes it's the result of an unauthorised addition. One church notice-board used to display a different text from the Bible every week. One week the text was Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek; for they will inherit the earth". To which some inspired wag added with a felt-tip marker "If that's all right with the rest of you."

It is very easy to mock the meek. It's very common in our society, where meekness is not, in any sense, a virtue. It's common because meekness is disturbing. Our culture trains us, like the Pharisees who were rebuked by Jesus's story, to seek out the places of honour "because we're worth it". Our culture drums into us the idea that the highest human goal is self-fulfilment - whether that self-fulfilment is material or social, sexual or financial. Film-goers heard Michael Douglas's repulsive caricature of a Wall Street dealer, Gordon Gekko, proclaim that "Greed is good" and they took him at his word.

That is a long way from what Jesus says. All through the Gospels - and especially in Luke's Gospel - we hear warnings against the seductions of power and status. A fortnight ago we heard Mary the Lord's mother rejoice that "God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." And today we heard her son give a tweak to a piece of ancient wisdom.

The Book of Proverbs is a wonderful collection of wise sayings, many of which are intended to guide people who are, in modern terms, "trainee civil servants". Our first reading takes one of those sayings - a warning against pushing yourself forward in the presence of a ruler. It's pure "Yes, Minister". Are you listening, Bernard?

Jesus takes that thought and extends it. The wise man's tip to a thrusting young public servant becomes advice to all who are inclined to throw their weight around in the search for status and privilege. His example is top table at a wedding. We might think of airline seats or queuing for a "hot" ticket - for the theatre, perhaps, or for a concert. Or we might think of any situation where we are tempted to say "shotgun baggsy, turn-round, touch ground" (or its grown-up equivalent, however well-disguised).

And then, while we're still sniggering at the foolishness of such obvious status-seekers, Jesus socks us right between the eyes with another comment on the theme of "Guess who's coming to dinner." He points out that anything we give because we expect to get something in return - even something as simple as an invitation back to their place - anything we give because we expect some kind of payback has its own reward built in. God's kingdom isn't built on that kind of mutual back-scratching, but on free gift - all the way down the line. Jesus invites his hearers (and that includes us) to reflect God's generosity in their own behaviour.

We are blessed when we give to those who cannot repay us. We are blessed when we give those who have nothing preference over those who can offer us favours in return. We are blessed when we give to those people in Pakistan who have been driven from their homes, who have watched as their villages, their animals, their loved ones are washed away in the flood waters. We are blessed because we are not acting out of calculation, but out of an awareness of their need and our human solidarity with all who are made in the image and likeness of God.

Tony Moore's sermon for Trinity 12: Hebrews 12:v18-29

I want you to imagine that one day through the post there arrives a letter with no address attached and no signature. You don`t know who has written it. To whom was it written and why? There are no clues beyond the letter`s contents. Indeed, the mind of Sherlock Holmes himself would be needed to reveal the possibilities.

We possess a writing in the New Testament rather like this, the Epistle to the Hebrews. Hebrews is perhaps the most puzzling book in the New Testament (and for that reason it is no often preached on). The name of the author is unknown. As one of the early Church Fathers commented (not flippantly), "Who wrote Hebrews God only knows". Early on, someone attached a title to it: "To the Hebrews". But whover did was almost certainly just speculating about the original recipients. But reading the book itself we can deduce some information about it. It reads more like a sermon than a letter. The addressees of the sermon were second-generation Jewish Christians who were wavering in their faith. From the beginning they had faced abuse, suffering, and marginalization. New threats of persecution were looming on the horizon. Their situation was precarious. The preacher (and this is how I shall refer to the author of Hebrews) was afraid that his readers were on the verge of abandoning the Christian faith.

The passage for today`s Epistle from Chapter 12 is not an easy one to understand even if you have the text in front of you. It comes from near the end of the book, after the famous passage in Chapter 11 about the "great cloud of witnesses" who lived "by faith". (I preached on that passage when I was here three years ago). Throughout Hebrews the preacher is seeking to contrast and compare ancient Israel and the Church, the old dispensation and the new. In Chapter 3 he compares Moses and Jesus: Moses is the recipient of God`s revelation on Mount Sinai, but Jesus is someone even greater, sent by God to be the high priest of the faith we profess. The preacher compares the Church`s approach to the heavenly Mount Sion (Jerusalem) with Israel`s approach to Mount Sinai. The holy God descended on Mount Sinai but only Moses was allowed to come close to the sacred space. Everyone else, people and animals, had to keep their distance. God is pictured as being immensely distant from his people. The same was true of the Temple in Jerusalem. Only the high-priest could approach the holy of holies, and then only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. But in AD 70 the Temple was destroyed by the Roman army, and the old system of animal sacrifices to deal with sin was now superseded. Christ`s sacrifice on the cross which dealt once for all with sin superseded the old dispensation. That which was once the extraordinary privilege of the high priest alone, and on only one day of the year, was now the privilege of every member of the church. God was no longer distant and remote from believers whether on Mount Sinai or in the holy of holys in the Temple. All could now freely draw near to God in worship and prayer and receive from God mercy and grace. For Christians Zion, Jerusalem, was the image of the heavenly realm. As Christians celebrated the Eucharist in their house churches they shared in a heavenly reality, they already had experience of the heavenly Jerusalem in the here and now.

I think the preacher overstates the contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. In presenting the Jewish faith as a religion in which God was distant and remote he was going too far. After all, Christian worship in the early days owed much to the worship of the synagogue. And the preacher speaks warmly of the Old Testament heroes and heroines whom he commemorates for their faith. We can rejoice that we can approach God through Christ without needing to disparage the faith of the Jewish people. Hebrews addresses a word that is relevant to Christian believers today. It reminds us that from the beginning Christianity had no privileged place in society. Philip Jenkins, the distinguished Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University, in his book "The Next Christendom" has shown that Christianity in Europe and North America is in a period of decline that will eventually result in the Christian Church becoming a minority voice in the traditional Christian lands.

There are some Christians in Britain who already feel marginalised, even victimized for their faith. In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph over Easter Lord Carey and six bishops wrote that they were "deeply concerned at the apparent discrimination shown against Christians". They cited the case of Shirley Chaplain, a nurse claiming religious discrimination because she said she had been asked to remove her crucifix when working. Other examples included a nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient, and a teacher who became the subject of a complaint for offering to pray for an ill pupil. But as Archbishop Rowan said in his Easter sermon, in countries such as Nigeria, Iraq, southern Sudan, the Holy Land, and Zimbabwe Christian minorities suffered physical persecution for their beliefs. "We need to keep our own fears in perspective" he said. Conflicts about the wearing of crosses were more likely to be the result of "wooden-headed bureaucratic silliness" combined with a well-meaning and completely misplaced anxiety about giving offence to non-Christians. Hebrews offers encouragement to those Christians who feel that their faith is being marginalised in today`s society.

First, in Chapter 4 the preacher reminds his readers that the life of faithfulness does not depend on their own strength and determination. It is Jesus Christ who enables Christians to remain faithful. Though he has passed into God`s presence he is by no means distant from us. Because he has fully experienced our human condition, he is able to help us. He can bring God`s grace and strength to bear in our struggles. We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (12:2).

Secondly, the preacher parades before his readers the great cloud of witnesses, the past heroes and heroines of faith. This year you are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of this Church. You remember past members of the congregation who gave faithful service over the last eighty years and who are role models of faith for you. If there are times when you feel discouraged, their example should inspire you to run with endurance the race that lies ahead.

Thirdly, the preacher says that Christians cannot sustain their faith in isolation. Some of those to whom Hebrews was first addressed had fallen into the bad habit of staying away from worship, whether from fear or laxity. It`s a bad habit into which some Christians still easily fall today. Only by gathering together with our fellow-Christians can we be helped to resist the temptation to fall away. As we read and study the Scriptures and as we break bread and share the common cup we have the opportunity in the midst of our present trials and tribulations to visualize and bring closer God`s new world, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is here that, in the words of Hebrews, "we taste, already in this old order, the powers of the age to come" (Heb 6:4-5). May the preacher`s words offer encouragement to us in the church today to help us to remain faithful.

Val Evan's sermon for 15 August 2010

Galatians 4: 4-7 Luke 1: 46-55

What a good reading for a baptism service - this well-loved song of praise known by its Latin name of Magnificat. The words are sublime, especially when sung. The first few verses are full of thanks and praise for God's goodness but then it develops into a bit of a rant about justice for the poor - more like a political manifesto. God has always been the inspiration of movements for justice and peace but it seems strange to hear these words from the lips of Mary. To see if we can shed any light on these words I'd like to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there lived a young girl in a town in Galilee called Nazareth. She was about fourteen years old and her name was Mary. One day as she was feeding the chickens she became aware that she was being watched. She looked up and, to her amazement, saw someone looking rather like an angel standing near her. She was very startled, but the angel greeted her gently. Gabriel, for that was his name, told her that God had chosen her to give birth to his son and she was to call him Jesus. Mary asked him how this would be possible as she was a virgin, and he told her that the child would be conceived through the Holy Spirit of God. Then Mary realised that he was not just telling her what would happen but that it would only happen with her agreement, her active co-operation. Thoughts flashed through her mind - what would her parents say? What about their neighbours and, more importantly, what about her beloved Joseph who she was soon to marry? Who would believe her? She looked at Gabriel and felt the love of God radiating through her and found herself saying 'yes, if that is what God wants me to do'. She felt at peace with God, but also very excited. Then Gabriel told her that Elizabeth, her elderly aunt, had also conceived a son as part of God's plan.

Mary could hardly wait to see Elizabeth; she felt that only her aunt would understand what was happening to her. She made the long journey by foot and when she arrived and the two women greeted each other, Elizabeth felt her baby leap in her womb almost as if he was greeting the child in Mary's womb [which of course he was]. Elizabeth cried out words of blessing on her young niece, and Mary was so greatly moved that at last she felt free to rejoice at what God had called her to do. She burst out in words from her favourite song of praise which she had heard so often in the synagogue:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.

…and the words go on. Mary had always loved these words. They came from Hannah who, many centuries ago, had praised God in these words as she dedicated her young son Samuel to serve God in the temple. As Mary began this song other verses from the prophets and the psalms came to mind which she used for her own song of praise for the son of God she was to bear and for his mission to the world. A mission that was all about peace with justice, with a particular bias to the poorest.

Mary learnt of God's will for her through the message of an angel. Today we don't expect such things to happen. But, I suggest, when we are open to God's presence in our lives we find that God makes his approaches to us in many ways - perhaps through the loving relationships of family and friends, especially the little ones; through the beauty of his creation, through quiet thought and prayer, through the words we read, the music we hear, the things that interest us. But especially through his Church which, however fallible, represents the body of Jesus Christ in the world. When God calls us to live the Christian life may we trust him and respond with our 'yes'.

Mary had the words to praise God because she had heard them so many times in the synagogue and they had become imbedded in her psyche. I wonder if we appreciate just how the words in our worship and the Bible affect us. When we are moved by happiness, when we are anxious or sad, the words we know so well help us to express our feelings. In the first reading from the Bible today St. Paul refers to us as children, and says that 'God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba! [which means daddy] Father!' Isn't it wonderful that God would be so close to each one of us? May God our loving Father be that close to Kayla and Lexi as they begin their Christian lives; and may their parents and families know God's guiding presence throughout their lives. Amen