Ash Wednesday

Just because we are human, we are all called to be holy - that is to be people of love, deep in love with God and with other. As Christians we are committed to grow in holiness by our baptism.

Lent, which begins today, is a time to remember this call to holiness and to seek renewal by God's grace to continue on our journey to perfect love. At today's Mass we are marked with ashes, a sign of repentance, acknowledging that we have all turned away from the path of holiness. As the season progresses we quite deliberately turn back to that path. We will renew our commitment to it together when we come to celebrate the Easter Vigil, making once again the promises of our baptism.

Keeping Lent is an important part of our collective Christian life. There are three traditional ways of keeping Lent:

• Fasting - We give something up as a spiritual discipline and as a sign that we depend ultimately on God alone. It's a good idea to give something up for the whole of Lent. In addition, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are particular days of fasting.
• Prayer - We make deliberate efforts to spend time with God in prayer. Lent is a good time to take a look at our prayer lives: do we set some time aside every day, even a few minutes, to be aware of God's presence?
• Almsgiving - We work for God's Kingdom by giving and working for justice. Many people like to donate to a Lent charity. In our diocese, Bishop Richard has a Lent appeal. But Christian charity isn't just about giving money. We are called to make the world better. Look, for example, at the Church Action on Poverty website.

There are many other ways of observing Lent. It is a good time to make your confession - the sacramental celebration of God's forgiveness that should be part of the life of every Christian. In our parishes there will be an opportunity to work through the Pilgrim Course module on the Lord's Prayer - 11:30am on Wednesdays at St John's, 7:30pm on Thursdays at St Matthias. This will be a good opportunity to learn more about our faith alongside other people. Finally, we'll be praying the Stations of the Cross at 6pm each Sunday at St John's - why not make this a part of your weekly timetable this Lent?

Sunday Next before Lent

Mt Sinai

Mountains have a special place in our religious landscape as they are mentioned over 500 times in the pages of the Bible.

Mountains have a logical religious symbolism for biblical cultures since their peaks are “closer to God” who was believed to dwell in the heavens. As a result, God often reveals himself on the mountaintop.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the mountains of Sinai and Zion are most significant. Mount Sinai, of course, is associated with Moses and is the place where Moses received the gift of the Law, the Ten Commandments. Thus, Mount Sinai is a symbol of God’s Covenant with Israel. Zion, to the south, is the location of the Jerusalem Temple. In the New Testament (Mark and Luke to be precise), Jesus appoints the Twelve on a mountain. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus delivers the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount, conjuring an image of Moses who received the Commandments on Mount Sinai.

Perhaps the most significant mountain scene in the Gospels, however, is the Transfiguration of Jesus that we have just heard as our gospel this morning - Jesus is accompanied by Moses and Elijah, who themselves encountered God on the mountaintop in the Hebrew Scriptures. Now, they encounter God through Jesus and Jesus, in turn, is seen as the fulfillment of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah).

Mountains have always had significance for myself. As a teenager, and a  family we lived in the shadow of 9 great copper bearing mountains in the Congo and a decade a go I came to appreciate the beauty of the mountains that make Jamaica so beautiful and produced some of the best coffee in the world. last year I returned to Africa to climb Mt Kilimanjaro to celebrate my 25 years of ordained life and thanks in part to your generosity was able to raise £5.5K for the Bishop of London’s Mission Fund.

So Mountains remind us of God , are places that touch and inspire the human imagination and in the ascent of them test our own character and will power.

We climb the mountain of Transfiguration each year before Lent begins

for the same reason Moses climbed Mount Pisgah, to get a glimpse of the Promised Land. We climb to see where we ourselves are headed and to get some perspective on our journey of faith.

When Jesus arrived at the mountain top his figure changed the outward appearance of the son of Mary, which had been ordinary and like us,

shone as if he was not like one of us.

 

Jesus shone with the glory like that which caused the face of Moses to shine that day on the mountain of Sinai, when the holy law from heaven was given.   Jesus shone with the glory that carried Elijah up to heaven's height, gone from this world but alive in the next. 

      

He shone with the glory of his own baptismal day, when his Father's voice from above was heard to say: "This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased" and indeed those words first uttered at the river are repeated on the Mountain of Transfiguration.

And what is our response to this extraordinary revelation?

What does this mountain top experience teach or inspire within us in our journey of faith today?

Jesus was facing the long journey to another mountain, where he would be lifted higher – the mount of Golgatha outside the walls of Jerusalem

It would of course not be a journey he would undertake alone but with the Disciples close at hand, but unlike on this mountain at the point when Jesus was lifted high on the cross they had already fled in fear and shame.

Scripture tells in many places that to be like Jesus is our destiny; that the intention of God in his calling of us is to make us like him. We are destined for glory, a glory like his, a glory that will make us shine as he shone.

But first, as with Jesus, there is cross to bear.

And therefore each year we climb the mountain of Transfiguration with him. We climb because there is a rough road ahead of us, we climb to draw inspiration for the 40 days ahead in our personal and collective discipleship and discipline as his followers.

  

We climb to share the vision that Peter and James and John beheld,

and to be strengthened by it for our return to the lowlands

for our return into the nitty gritty of living and for the days before we receive the fullness of the glory that Jesus gives to us through his death and his resurrection that we celebrate at Easter.

Jesus looked ahead to the choices of the Passion and God gave him the

vision and the strength he needed:

Golgotha

We too stand at the threshold of the great season of Lent – that begins on Wednesday – Ash Wednesday.

Before us are decisions – something to give up perhaps, something to take on definitely – daily prayer….. Lent groups…..stations of the cross on Sunday evenings.

As we look forward, be it in our daily challenges or our preparation for Lent,  we see Jesus ahead beckoning us to follow him into the passion and death that is Holy week and Easter. and we draw the strength needed to follow and resolve in order not to fall away or give up over the next five weeks

God wills to give us the vision and the strength we need the vision and the strength to face the fears and choices of our lives. The vision and the strength we need to respond to the call of God to live beyond ourselves, to live lives of sacrifice and courage  till the glory we see in Christ settles on us not just for a day, but forever.

3rd Sunday before Lent

Writing to the church in Corinth, St Paul reminds his readers then and now that the Christian faith is something different. Christianity doesn't fit neatly into the existing order of things, it does not sit comfortably with received ideas, it certainly isn't " a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age". In fact, if the rulers of this age had the slightest grasp on the wisdom that comes from God, "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory".

St Paul is quite clear here, and elsewhere, that Christian belief is on a collision course with Empire. In signing up to life in Christ, his readers place themselves outside of the mainstream, commit themselves to a way of seeing the world that is likely to make them stick out like a sore thumb, to place them in awkward positions, and to force them to challenge many features of the world around them. And this calling would be a familiar one to any of his readers - probably many of them - with a good grounding in the scriptures. It is the calling to be prophetic.

As in Paul's day, so in our own. Christians are called to not fit in! We see the world in the light of the future Kingdom, through which God in Christ establishes justice, love, and peace. Because of this we should feel restless, we should end up disagreeing with much that we hear from our politicians and newspapers, and we should often find ourselves out-of-sync with fashionable ideas. We should be difficult, marginal, and, yes, prophetic.

There are, however, dangers here. It is all too easy to take the call to not fit it as an excuse to feel affirmed in whatever unpopular idea we happen to hold. I have no doubt that the bishops who drafted the House of Bishop's response to same-sex marriage, published yesterday, felt that they were prophetically standing up for the gospel, refusing to conform to 'the wisdom of the age'. Yet I myself see nothing of the good news in their attitude towards a good number of their own people and clergy. In fact, far from setting themselves against, 'the wisdom of the world', it seems to me that elements of the Church are in danger of aligning themselves with some of the most disturbing and bigoted elements of that world. The room for self-deception once we set ourselves up as prophets is real, and is something we need to recognise.

Yet we cannot escape from the call to be prophets. For all that it brings with it temptations, the call to be a prophet is one given to each of us at our baptism and one that we cannot escape. Not only that, our world needs prophets. So let us pray that we exercise this calling wisely and with discernment.

Lighting up the world

Today's gospel reminds us that our calling, our vocation, as Christians is for the sake of other people. Being a baptised person is not all about me being alright with God, to the exclusion of other people. Instead the Church - that is, all of us - are there to be a sign of God's Kingdom to the world, a sign that makes that Kingdom a reality. In words that echo today's gospel, each newly baptised person is called to "shine as a light in the world, to the glory of God the Father".

We are called to be like the salt, a small pinch of which can make an entire meal tasty. We are called to be like a light - the smallest candle can shed light on an entire room. Our churches might be small in comparison to the population of our city, but even so God wants to work through us, using us as salt for his earth and light for his world. The groups of people who meet Sunday by Sunday in West Hendon and Colindale for Mass are people God wants to be something like a sacrament of his love and his salvation for the people of this area, loved by God and made in his image. That is an awesome, and a wonderful, calling.

We can let our light shine by confidentally celebrating the Church's worship, by sharing our faith with others in day-to-day life, and bringing other people to Church. We can let that light shine by serving others around us, by breaking down barriers of fear and hate, and by struggling for justice in a city where divisions between rich and poor grow daily. In these, and in many other ways, we can be faithful to Jesus' call in the gospel.

Happy Candlemas!

Today we celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. We look back to Christmas - Jesus is still a baby when he's presented - and forward to the Cross - Simeon tells our Lady that a sword will pierce her heart. You can read about Jesus' presentation in Luke's gospel.

Today is often called Candlemas. At both churches we began our Masses by blessing candles and carrying them in procession, remembering the words of Simeon - Jesus is "a light to lighten the Gentiles".

A Hymn for Candlemas

Hail to the Lord who comes,
comes to his temple gate!
Not with his angel host,
not in his kingly state;
no shouts proclaim him nigh,
no crowds his coming wait;

but, borne upon the throne
of Mary's gentle breast,
watched by her duteous love,
in her fond arms at rest;
thus to his Father's house
he comes, the heav'nly Guest.

There Joseph at her side
in reverent wonder stands,
and, filled with holy joy,
old Simeon in his hands
takes up the promised Child,
the glory of all lands.

Hail to the great First-born
whose ransom-price they pay!
The Son before all worlds,
the Child of man today,
that he might ransom us
who still in bondage lay.

O Light of all the earth,
thy children wait for thee!
come to thy temples here,
that we, from sin set free,
before thy Father's face
may all presented be!

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

We are warned from our childhood upwards of the dangers of taking short cuts in life, of trying to get something for nothing.

However when you look at many of the stories of our childhood the opposite is the case. Whether it is kissing frogs, magic beans, glass slippers or cats in boots there are far more stories that tell the tale of lives transformed by fortune and luck.

The urge to gamble is probably one of our basic instincts, from the moment our forebears decided to leave the security of trees and walk upright on the grassy savanars of pre-history the story of the human race has been one of taking risks. Life is a gamble, and that is why we find death so hard to deal with in our modern technologically advanced world for it is stark reminder that life is a very precarious thing and although we do much to make our lives longer, however we try and iron out all the little wrinkles, immortality still evades us.

The truth of the matter is that nobody gets anything for nothing.  If we receive a good education, we more than likely worked hard for it. If our relationships and family lives are prospering, it has taken a lot of good will and hard work. If we are making good money in our jobs, for most of us it is because we have to put in the extra hours.

This is a lesson confirmed in the gospel reading this morning. Jesus proclaims “The kingdom of heaven has come near” While this is of course good news there is a condition attached; something that applies to any good thing in life: Entrance to the kingdom has its price. we need to make ourselves ready with a change of heart. Jesus tells us simply “repent”

I doubt there is a single one of us here who would not want a life of peace, kindness and compassion. We wish there was harmony among all people  that wars would cease and the poor of the world would be fed and clothed………. This is kingdom living indeed.

But kingdom living remains a utopia for the most part because we are unwilling to make the effort required to bring it about. WE always think it is someone else’s job or responsibility. We are prepared to speak passionately about an idea but when it comes to putting it into practice that is another matter completely. Yes the Spirit of often willing but the flesh is weak.

WE all want to be part of this kingdom but don’t want to have to change in order to make it possible. The honest and harsh answer to the hungry of the world is that we do not want to change the way in which we live our life, we do want to have less so that more can be shared out.

When it comes to our faith we are not much better. We are not prepared to make the sacrifice necessary to be at church, we are prepared to give money but giving our time can sometimes cost too much.

The question remains Are we willing to pay the price? how important is our faith, our membership of the Church to us? Are we willing to repent and make the teachings of Jesus central to our life, or certainly live trying to!  

If you are felling uncomfortable now then that is a start for at least it means that the question is genuine. Sports people know all about pain as they spend hour after hour training and pushing themselves in order to do better in their chosen field. When looking at someone competing, it is all to easy to simply put it down to natural talent – after all they make it look so easy. However the reality if often different, their natural talent is the result of years of demanding discipline, training and practice. 

Jesus did not call the rich and powerful to be his disciples.

Paul did not win converts to the early church through eloquent wisdom.

But those who heard the call of Jesus by the sea of Galilee left their nets and followed.

Those who heard the words of Paul came together as the early church.

what do you need to change in your life in order to walk in the footsteps of Jesus?

The Baptism of the Lord

Today we celebrate the baptism of Christ. Christ is baptised in the river Jordan and is revealed as the one in whom God's promises will be fulfilled - the heavens open, and the Father's voice declares Jesus to be his 'beloved Son'. Here we see that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. This is the one who will establish God's Kingdom and bring us life.

Through our own baptisms we come to share in what Jesus has done for us. By the gift of baptism we become by grace what Jesus is by nature - a child of God. We are God's sons and daughters, we are beloved. Because of what Jesus has done, the Father is pleased with us. By baptism we are made new, we are set on a path away from sin - that is, from everything that prevents us flourishing - and symbolically reject our defeated enemy, the devil.

Baptism is important. It is the beginning of Christian life. It is something to treasure and seek to understand more deeply. Today, let's give thanks for our own baptisms and commit ourselves to live them more fully in the coming year.