So, you're a King?

So, you're a King?

My Kingdom is not built of gold:

Is not founded on wealth

Or military might;

Is not measured in house prices, GDP or wars won.

My Kingdom is not built

As a mere Big Society

Which hopes for the best

For the powerless

But does not put their needs first.

My Kingdom is not built

Of stone, stained glass and splendour, 

Nor measured in church attendance figures

(However freshly expressed).

No.

My Kingdom is built

Of the wood of the cross:

Of pain, humiliation, injustice;

Of weakness, defeat and death:

God with us.

God saving us.

God redeeming us.

Grace.

Meet me in a few days

And you'll see.

A meditation for Maundy Thursday, based on John 18:33-38

2017: The year of Alt-truth? You have a choice.

Will things look different in 2017?

Some people say they were glad to see the back of 2016.  The cry went up: ‘The Curse of 2016 Strikes Again’ whenever yet another well-loved celebrity died.  It was also a year of political developments which left lasting scars on our nation, not least in allowing those who wish to abuse migrants or their descendants to believe this is justified by the Brexit referendum result (much to the horror of many who voted for Brexit, it must be said). Something in the air has changed. On a practical level, there is continuing uncertainty about our future relationship with Europe, but there is also a new tone emerging in political debate, and not only in the UK.

We allegedly now live in a “post-truth” era. Politicians can, with a straight face, disparage the idea of taking advice from experts.  The phrase ‘Brexit means Brexit’ is said as if there is agreement about what the exact outcome of Brexit will look like. Being caught in mistruth after mistruth was no barrier to Donald Trump becoming President-elect of the USA.  Whatever our political opinions, shouldn’t we be worried about this revision of the honoured place of truth in political discourse?
At his trial, Jesus explained to Pontius Pilate, “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37b).

Cat unimpressed with lying food labelling:
Did not contain any actual tiger.

Christians know Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Accepting that there is such a thing as truth is important.  It reminds us there is something bigger than ourselves, and if we take truth seriously it will inform our attitudes and actions.  Truth offers something solid, something to be relied upon, something to anchor our lives to.  So, do we accept that truth is something worth pursuing, worth allowing to set the course of our lives? Or, as Pilate did in response to Jesus, do we simply shrug dismissively and say, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) and allow the loudest, brashest, most populist voices to set the tone and direction this year, telling people what they think they want to hear, unencumbered by the notion of truth?   And on a personal level, if we follow The Way, The Truth and The Life, we allow something bigger than ourselves, bigger than the times and tides of human history to set the course of our lives.

As we peer into the beginnings of 2017, we don’t know what lies ahead. But we should walk onwards determined to take truth seriously.  My advice? Be well-informed. Question the truthfulness of what you hear and read, whether it be from politicians, pundits, broadcasters, the press or that bloke down the pub.  Do not assume that someone is telling the truth simply because you agree with what they are saying.  And if 2017 reveals itself to be yet another flaky, unreliable year and our world changes in ways which make you feel trapped by events way beyond your control, I commend Jesus, The Truth, to you.  If you follow Jesus and keep his words, then, Jesus says, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31b-32). So choose truth, choose freedom, this coming year and forever. Amen.

Written in December 2016 for the Masham & Area Parish Magazine (Jan-Feb 2017 edition). Decided to publish it online after receiving positive feedback and seeing how President Trump, Iain Duncan Smith and others have proven my worries that this would be a growing theme were well founded.

Light in the darkness

Sermon – Midnight Mass, 2015, Snape Castle Chapel

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. Words from John’s Gospel we just heard. Light in the darkness….

We see Christmas lights everywhere this time of year and tonight, here we are, bathed in the soft glow of candlelight. We sing about light in carols: “light and life to all he brings”, “but in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light”, “Silent night, Holy night, Son of God, love's pure light”. So what is this Light which we celebrate at Christmas? Where do we look for true Christmas Light?

Perhaps we should look at some of this year’s TV ads which seem to want to share some kind of “spirit of Christmas”. The John Lewis ad, (Man in the Moon) has a theme of reaching out to the isolated, symbolized by a girl sending presents to an elderly man on the moon. Then there’s the Sainsbury’s ad featuring Mog the cat who saves the day when the house catches fire, but the punchline is that all the neighbours share their Christmas things with Mog’s family.

And then there’s the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens, where some themes seem to fit the season. No spoilers, I promise! The film’s title The Force Awakens appeals to the idea of a moral rising up, the goodies standing up for justice against oppressors.  The whole series of Star Wars films includes themes of hope, good versus evil, oppressed peoples waiting for their salvation, and on the personal level, themes of power, temptation, self-sacrifice and redemption. The light sabres shine in the darkness…?

In many ways, then, we live in a culture which still seems to want to embrace some elements of what we think of as the spirit of Christmas. But even these positive themes are not the heart of Christmas, they are not the light shining in the darkness which John’s Gospel speaks of. At Christmas, we may see glimpses of light in the darkness in these cultural nods but, to paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi’s line in a previous Star Wars film, “These aren’t the lights you’re looking for. You can go about your business…”
They are not the real deal.

Perhaps we can see the Light more clearly in a traditional nativity play acted out by small children? Even here though, we can still end up selling Christmas short, lovely and heartwarming as nativity plays invariably are. And that’s the problem. If our vision of Christ’s birth is merely “lovely and heartwarming”, if it’s the cosy, sanitized picture painted by sentimental Victorian carols like Away in a Manger, we have got it very wrong. “But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes”? Seriously? Doesn’t sound like a real baby to me… and make no mistake, Jesus was a real, human baby.  An airbrushed, idealized baby who doesn’t cry, in a soft-lit, beautifully clean stable scene with docile animals, beautifully lit by starlight is pretty much the opposite of the events of Christmas we read about in the Bible. It was dirty. It was messy, smelly, noisy. It took place under an oppressive regime in an unimportant part of a huge empire. It took place at the end of a pregnancy which would have shamed both Mary and Joseph’s families. God met us in a mess. Jesus arrived in squalor and was laid in an animal’s food trough because things were so bad that there simply was no other option, and before Jesus was much older, his family had to become refugees in Egypt, as they fled for their lives.

The light shines in the darkness…

But again, this light is about more than the mere survival of a baby against the odds. Jesus, the Light of the World didn’t remain a baby. He grew into a man and lived a perfect life which exemplified God’s love, showing us that it is possible to love God and love each other. But this life of self-giving love had a price: it challenged the powerful and made those who thought they had the monopoly on morality uncomfortable. And it led to an unfair trial, torture and a shameful death for Jesus on a cross.

The world still has darkness. The world still needs light. So yes, this Christmas let us reach out to the isolated as John Lewis suggest. Let us share our plenty with those in need as suggested by Sainsbury’s. As in The Force Awakens, let us reawaken our efforts to bring about justice in our world (not just in a galaxy far, far away). All good stuff, really good stuff which I am not knocking.  But remember that these are symptoms of Christmas Light, reflections, not the light itself.

God’s Light is not remote. God came to us – and still comes to us today - in Jesus. The darkness of this world meant that Jesus’s life of love, light and peace led to his death on the cross. And then, three days later, the true nature of the Light which Shines in the Darkness was revealed: Jesus rose from the dead.  The Eternal Light of God came to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ on Christmas day, but this crucial moment in history wasn’t immediately obvious to the world. The power of that light was only fully revealed at Easter when that same Jesus Christ was raised from the dead into a wonderful new expression of life – resurrection life. And Jesus is alive and among us still today by the power of the Holy Spirit, and is alive in his Church. Christmas light is Easter light: the light of eternal life in God.

So know this: whatever life throws at you, however dark things seem, or however light and comfortable life may be, God’s light is worth inviting into your life. Welcome the light of Jesus into your lives, not only this Christmas, but forever more. Don’t make do with just the reflections, go for the real deal: the transforming light which comes through Jesus. “In him was life and that life was the light of men”. Ask God for something truly transforming this Christmas. Open your hearts and pray that you will receive Jesus: the light which shines in the darkness and which the darkness cannot – and has not - overcome. Amen.

Church reflected: 4 schools in one day

One of the joys of working where I do is that there are five primary schools on my patch. Today I spent time with four of them. Today I caught a glimpse of what church communities can be like at their best.

Communal life in Christ: we are many, but one body....

The day started with midweek Holy Communion which takes place on market day in a market town. Years 5 and 6 formed more than half of the congregation of thirty-odd. There is always a real sense of community about this service with worshippers of all ages being present and taking part in the service, some as servers, or giving contributions to the sermon, and everyone sharing a handshake of peace across the generations. I always get the sense that this service is something the regulars - whether pupils or adults from the wider community - really cherish.

Then it was on to take collective worship in a school tucked away down a beautiful side valley. I arrived to find them still finishing their annual Christmas Dinner, so I had to shorten what I'd planned so a group of them could go off on the coach to swimming lessons on time. But we chatted about Advent and how its themes help us think about Christmas being just one important part of God's Great Big Story. Again, the welcome from the pupils is always a delight, and it didn't really matter that we had a shorter time together: what we did do together was put the fun of the Christmas dinner they'd just had into some kind of bigger picture, and for me and for them this was a welcome pause for breath in the middle of a busy day.

On next to another village school, this time meeting in a village hall for their Christmas production. Reception and Key Stage 1 (that's "infants" in old money) staged a nativity play with great panache (and occasional prompts and prods). Then the older pupils performed a dance and then a song (the latter being something I'd helped them learn on my weekly visits to help in class). It was great to be with this school as an audience member for once. Normally when I see them, it is either me leading collective worship, or helping in their classrooms, but this time it was them giving to me. And it was ace.

Thankfully, a cuppa was available before I sped off to yet another village for an after-school Messy Church session. Here, members of the village's Methodist and Anglican churches (lay and clergy alike) worked alongside the children in craft activities, making different elements of the nativity, chatting round the tables about how the characters fitted into the story, and eventually joining together to tell the Christmas story in a cardboard theatre resembling a Punch and Judy tent.

And God pointed to the classroom carpet and said unto Abraham,
"Look at the carpet and count the number of bits of glitter, if indeed
you can count them..." (see Gen. 15:5 - a good Advent I reading!)

I was part of the team who were decorating the theatre itself with glitter, stamp prints of nativity characters, glitter stars, paint, glitter, stickers, stars, glitter, glue, glitter tape and glittery stickers. And glitter. There were loads of adults there which was great - a ratio of around one adult for every two children - so there was a lot of inter-generational helping each other and explaining, and not just grown-ups telling the children what to do. Church is at its best when it refuses to be merely clubs of the likeminded but genuinely breaks down social barriers, and this was all-age church in action. We were a team, with an idea of what the big plan for the afternoon was, but with a lot of giving each other space to do our own thing, try different ways of doing things, and enjoying each other's company as we all made it happen together and learned from each other.

So in one day:

• children joined with me and others around the Lord's Table in worship, to spend time meeting Jesus in Word and Sacrament
• children and I shared a reflective time together, a restful pause in a busy day for all of us
• children served their community through creative communication
• children and adults got covered in glitter, glue and paint, engaged with an important story in the Christian faith, and made something good co-operatively
• these things grew out of the schools to become something bigger, reaching out into a wider vision of community
• the children's contribution was valuable and valued; they gave and received; they were affirmed and they affirmed others

Sounds like what Church could be, to me.

Today reminded me that when people talk about British values, they are still really talking about Christian values. Not in the moralistic way which the term "Christian values" is used from time to time; rather that the communal values I saw in four C of E schools today are grounded in models of Christian communal living which we read about in the New Testament. No society is value-neutral. No society exists which is not "belief-based": whatever values we use to base consensus on are underpinned by faith in something or other every time.

Not every parent would be comfortable with their child participating in every element of my day. I get that and respect that, but no child was forced to take part in any of it, and the atmosphere was not one of indoctrination, but of sharing and celebrating together things which underpin our national culture, and which inform our society's values. Or at the very least, these things give us a starting point for a discussion about how those values need working through into practice.

Church of England schools were founded to serve their communities rather than to be places of indoctrination, or cosy clubs for church "insiders". Today I saw living proof that this foundation is being lived up to now, at least in rural North Yorkshire. I think we all enjoyed ourselves today, and I reckon there are many churches who can learn a lot about what it means to be a loving Christian community from their schools.

God is with us: as we remember loved ones who have died

Remembering Those We Love - Sunday 1st November 2015, 10.45am, Jubilee Gardens, North Stainley

Jubille Gardens, Watermill Lane - just beyond the village hall car park

The Church year around early November has a sort of "season of remembrance". From All Saints Day on November 1st (where the focus is on those throughout history who have been followers of Jesus) to All Souls Day on November 2nd where we remember all those who have died, through to Remembrance Sunday (November 8th this year) and Armistice Day on November 11th where we think about those killed in conflicts, this is a time to reflect on the passing of time, the passing of life and remembering those who are no longer here to walk alongside us.

Grief is a journey

When someone we love has died, our grief can take many forms. As time passes, grief seldom completely goes away, but it does change. Grief is a journey. Whether you come to the service on November 1st thinking about someone who has died recently or decades ago, this is an opportunity to invite God to be with you on your journey of grief, wherever you are on it.

God is with us

In the middle of Jubilee Gardens is a simple maze. It has dead ends; it loops around, seemingly not getting any closer to the centre at times; it sometimes changes direction suddenly; when you reach an apparent ending, you notice that there is another way which you can go; when you look back at where you have been, it gives you a different perspective. The journey of grief can be like that, too. There is no "right way" to grieve, but in the service on November 1st, the aim is to invite God to walk with us, wherever we are on that journey. A key message of the Christian faith is that God is with us, right in the middle of human experience and whatever life throws at us. 

One reason this service is taking place in Jubilee Gardens rather than in St Mary's Church or the churchyard is that it is in the middle of things, right in and among the houses. It is a place which some people use to play in, some like to sit, some like to wander around. It's a place where some people have planted trees, or placed plaques, benches and sculptures in memory of loved ones who have died. It is quite a new place, but one which already has meaning for many people in our community. By holding the service here, we're acknowledging that God comes out to meet us wherever we are in our grief and sense of loss. We are inviting God's loving, healing presence into the centre of our community.

Sometimes we need to look at our bereavement from a fresh perspective

The service will not be a long one. For a start, early November in North Stainley can be a cold, wet place to stand! If it is tipping down, we will have the service in the Village Hall, another new place in the centre of the life of our community. But the service will include prayers, words from the Bible, a little music, space to reflect and offer thanks to God for those we love who have died, and a simple act of remembrance which we can all join in with. This won't be anything embarrassing, but will be a chance to offer our grieving - whatever is on our hearts - to God.

Loving God, loving each other

All are welcome in Jubilee Gardens at 10.45am on Sunday 1st November followed by refreshments in the Village Hall. Let's support each other in our journeys of grief by coming together in remembrance and prayer, and recognise that, whatever shape our grief takes at the moment, wherever we think we are on that journey, God is reaching out to us in love.


Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from the love God has for us. Not death, not life, not angels, not ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, or anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39 (International Children's Bible)

Christianity: God's Shocking, Big Project, or just a zombie-worshipping, flesh-eating death cult?

Sermon – 23-viii-15 – given by Revd Nick Morgan at Snape Castle chapel, 6.30pm
Trinity +12
Readings: Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

“Zombie-worshipping, flesh-eating death cult”. That’s quite an alarming phrase, isn’t it? Well, it’s one which I recently read being used to describe the Christian Faith. “Zombie-worshipping, flesh-eating death cult”. Shocking, isn’t it? Offensive, and actually quite nasty. It was meant to be. The person using the phrase had issues with the Church and was lashing out, deliberately trying to provoke the Christians he was dealing with by twisting their worship of Jesus who rose from the dead into something which is the polar opposite of the truth. But he wasn’t being original: the Roman-dominated world where the early Church grew up made exactly the same sort of jibes about Christians. And, to be honest, Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel reading seem to invite this kind of misunderstanding.

Jesus says that he will abide with those who truly eat his flesh and drink his blood. Let’s face it, this is tricky imagery – and people at the time also clearly had trouble with it: “This teaching is very difficult: who can accept it?” many of his disciples said. But we need to look at this whole section of St John’s Gospel to see what Jesus is driving at.

We've just had five weeks of readings about bread: Jesus, the Bread of Life, the one who satisfies our very deepest needs. Then, in today’s reading, Jesus hammers the point home with an even more graphic image: eating his own flesh and blood. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life…. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.”.  Is this a major PR error? Why is Jesus using such shocking imagery?

Well, this is all about God’s Shocking, Big Project – bringing wholeness to all of Creation through Jesus. A Shocking, Big Project with a Shocking, Big Image: flesh and blood – Jesus – mirroring a spiritual, eternal reality. God, through Jesus, offers eternal life in all its fullness.

Peter has the punchline when Jesus asks the remaining disciples if they are going to abandon him as well. He says, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The disciples know Jesus: they know who he is and they do continue to follow him, and do choose to “abide” in him. That word which Jesus uses, “abide”, can also be translated as “being at home”: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood make themselves at home in me, and I am at home in them.” There’s a deep sense of welcoming Jesus into our hearts when we understand it that way, and understand that this is a two-way process: we make ourselves at home in Jesus, and he makes himself at home with us. There’s nothing more real to us than our own flesh and blood – and Jesus offers to be with us at that most profound level.

Jesus is not a historical puzzle to be understood, or a teacher whose way of looking at the world needs to be embraced. It’s more that he is a person to live with, to walk with; a companion, someone to welcome into our lives and invite to make himself at home in us, and someone for us to feel at home with as we “nestle” into his company. Those who stuck with Jesus – the disciples who didn’t turn back and didn’t stop walking with him – they made themselves at home with Jesus. And in sending the Holy Spirit, God offers us the same gift: to have God – to have Jesus - make himself at home in us. And us in Him.

That's all well and good, Nick, you might be saying, but how do we do that? Well I suggest you pray for it. Ask Jesus to be “at home” with you. Ask for the Holy Spirit to be with you, giving you the equipment you need to do God’s work and to guide you into all truth. In fact, St Paul gives us a kit list – the full armour of Christ, which we heard about in tonight’s reading from his letter to the Ephesians. This is a checklist, a reminder of the equipment available to us, to help us as we live out our lives with Jesus. The list goes like this: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, footwear which gets us ready to proclaim the Gospel of Peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

So, thinking about this list of armour, why not pray for these gifts of God? Ask God to lead you into a commitment to truth: to seeing things as they truly are. Pray for righteousness: for God to lead you into a right way of living through Jesus putting us right with God by his death and resurrection. Ask God to help you share the Good News of Jesus, and think about coming along in the Autumn to the course we are running which will go through the basics of the Christian faith: this will be a chance work out how to put our faith into words so we can share it with others. Look out for details of that course coming soon.

Continuing Paul’s list, we can pray for the gift of faith, reminding ourselves that we are totally reliant on God and can trust him; and also to thank God in prayer for our salvation. The “helmet of salvation” reminds us that the fact that we are saved isn’t a medal to wear to show that we’ve been rewarded for being good: it is a gift of God’s grace, just as all the other parts of this armour. It's something precious, but also something we can rely on when we are under attack. The final piece of armour is the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. We can read the Bible – either on its own, or with the help of daily notes, or a commentary which helps explain things. All kinds of resources are out there to help us do this and I am happy to point you in the direction of them – just ask.

These are some pointers for what you might ask God for yourselves in prayer. The equipment is there to be asked for. And asking for it is what St Paul suggests at the end of his kit-list: he tells the Ephesians to pray in the Spirit. So let’s invite the Holy Spirit to be with us, continually alongside us to help us grow in our faith and to live it out.

If we are serious about being part of God's Shocking, Big Project, then praying every day for Jesus to make himself at home with us, and for the Holy Spirit to be with us as we grow in faith, and equipping us to do God’s work, is a good place to start.


***

Footnote:

Reading the Bible daily – where to look for help

Here are some ideas, though I accept no responsibility for external links. I have heard good reports about the following:

Online:
Scripture Union resources can be signed up for online at https://www.wordlive.org 

Another set of resources which can be bought online is at: http://www.bible.org.uk/Bible_store_reading.php

Apps:
Join in the daily prayers and worship of the Church of England using an app (on your mobile phone or tablet):
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer.aspx

Also, search online for the Youversion Bible app. This offers several different daily reading plans and you can even choose from a number of different translations.

Or go to a bookshop and ask them to order these (yes, online ordering options are also available, I know but...)

Books:
The Daily Reading Bible, published in several volumes by Matthias Media.
Each volume contains 60 days of readings.
Volume 1’s ISBN number is 9781876326920

Daily notes:
New Daylight September - December 2015 by Naomi Starkey
The ISBN for New Daylight September - December 2015 is 9780857461322

Daily Bread October to December 2015 is published by Scripture Union
The ISBN for Daily Bread October to December 2015 is 9781785061103

Every Day with Jesus Sept-Oct 2015 by Selwyn Hughes is published by CWR
The ISBN for Every Day with Jesus September October 2015 is 9781782593799

Musings upon the Limitations of Recorded Music

Encoded,
Trapped in digits
Or on tape
Or in a wiggly groove.
Whatever the medium,
That which is encrypted
Requires a codec's touch
(Physical or digital)
To reawaken meaning
By becoming interpretable
To the human spirit.

Recorded:
Not the performance
Nor the music
But a most careful avatar
Of that which once was.
The music,
The performance
Can be evoked
But not entirely recreated.

Music, uttered,
Is spent in the unfolding
Of myriad moments
And the whole:
Time choreographed,
Meaning unfolded.
But its life
Can be celebrated afresh
Upon a relistening.