A letter to the Bishop of London.

Please note this letter represents my own personal views and may not necessarily represent the views of all members of St Aidan’s Church.

To the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.

Dear Bishop,

Christian Aid, in a current campaign, are drawing attention to the way in which considerable tax avoidance by multinational companies, and the very rich, is having a heavily negative impact on developing countries. In Kenya, for example, they suggest that for every $1 given in aid $10 might be lost through tax avoidance. This issue of tax avoidance is achieved by these companies, and individuals, because of the way that funds can be easily moved between different jurisdictions, and because of the strong culture of secrecy in the financial world.

This is just one example of the way in which our prevailing financial systems are working detrimentally on a world-wide scale. – Church Action on Poverty are drawing attention to similar issues. And, of course, the current financial crisis in Europe and the United States is a further symptom of this. – At the same time it is becoming increasingly clear that the pressure to consume ever more is having a detrimental effect on the life of the planet in a way that may turn out to be irreversible.

For some weeks, now, people in many parts of the world have been seeking to persuade governments that the time has come to take action to address these matters. And, as you know, some of those calling for such action are now camping around St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Cathedral proclaims on it’s website that “For hundreds of years, people gathered at Paul’s Cross in the cathedral’s churchyard to debate the great issues of the day.” I thought it entirely appropriate, therefore, when the Canon Chancellor welcomed the “occupiers.” Indeed, I felt a certain sense of pride, since it was in St Paul’s that I was ordained by one of your predecessors.

I was equally horrified when, a few days later, the Dean announced the closure of the cathedral. I thought of the feeding of the five thousand, whom the disciples had wanted to send away, but who to Jesus seemed like sheep without a shepherd, and whom he urged them to feed. I was even more disappointed when I read your statement, this morning, supporting the Dean in his request for the ‘occupiers’ to leave the site.

It is not for the church to take sides, either with city financiers or with protesters, although there is much in the bible to suggest that God has a special concern for the poor and the disaffected. However, the church is called to engage with all sides of the debate and to facilitate the emergence of a better world. Do we not pray daily “Thy Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven.” And, in this case, St Paul’s Cathedral is uniquely placed to fulfil this call and to engage in this process.

I urge you, therefore, to encourage the Dean to re-open the cathedral and to encourage an ongoing debate with those camped around it, as well as with all others involved in the life of the City.

Yours sincerely
David J Goss.

Vicar of St Aidan’s
Wheatley Hills,
Doncaster.

Turning the world upside down. Sermon for 23.11.11.

SERMON for Sunday 23rd October 2011

(Today’s Gospel, Matthew 22. 34-46, includes Jesus summary of the law, Love God and Love your neighbour, but I also use a crucial text from a story in Acts 17.1-9)

Christianity seems to have spread quickly, in its earliest years, throughout much of the known world. – And when some Christian missionaries, led by Paul, turned up at a place called Thessalonica some of the locals were dismayed and went to the authorities and complained “These people are turning the whole world upside down and now they have arrived here.”

Now, in today’s Gospel, Jesus summed up the heart of God’s commandments as “Love the Lord your God with all you have and all you are and love your neighbour as yourself.” So I want to raise the question: Why would people whose central tenet was “Love god and love your neighbour” – why would such people have the effect of turning the world upside down?

Perhaps you could just hold that question in your mind as I turn my attention somewhere else.

In the middle of September a group of people began a public demonstration in the Wall Street financial district of New York. They were drawing attention to what they saw as increasing financial injustice in American Society and the world: – the ever increasing gap between the richest and the poorest; the fact that a financial crisis faces us which seems to have been caused by bankers and financiers, although the banks have been bailed out while the poorest are having to pay more in tax.

This demonstration in Wall Street gradually grew; and by 9th October similar demonstrations were ongoing in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the United States – although the main news media had been trying to ignore it and had treated it as only a footnote to the news bulletins.

Then last week it went global. There were similar assemblies of people in towns and cities as far apart as Cape Town and Brisbane, Alaska and Peru. – All over the world, in fact. – We were in Nottingham last Sunday afternoon and we saw protesters there in the main square.

And, of course, a group of people turned up in the City of London, hoping to occupy the Stock Exchange district – but this was firmly barricaded by the police so they ended up gathered in the space around St Paul’s Cathedral. – The police were there in force but the Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s, the Revd Dr Giles Fraser, told the police their presence wasn’t needed. And the protesters set up camp.

From that moment certain press commentators had the situation very clearly in their sights. And I read commentaries in a couple of newspapers where it was suggested that Canon Giles Fraser may think he is following the teaching of Jesus who said “You cannot love both God and money” – but actually the cathedral itself is a huge financial institution depending for its up keep on the daily revenue from hundreds of tourists. – What they didn’t say, but what is also true, is that the Cathedral will have all sorts of ties and commitments to the City of London.

The newspapers commentators predicted that it would be only a matter of time before either the protesters would be forced to leave or the cathedral would close. And they didn’t have to wait long because on Friday the Cathedral Dean announced that the St Paul’s Cathedral was being forced to close, although he didn’t say it was for financial reasons but for health and safety reasons. In his statement, the Dean also said: “There is something profound about … a gathering together of those concerned about poverty and inequality facing the great Dome of this Cathedral Church … Some will rightly say that the Church should be alongside those seeking equality and financial probity. We are. The debate about a more just society is at the heart of much of our work at St Paul’s.”

The Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral are clearly in an undeniably difficult situation. Daily at the cathedral service of Evensong they sing, in the Song of Mary The Magnificat , of a God “Who puts down the mighty from their seats and exalts the humble and meek; who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich empty away.” The Dean and Chapter know very well that throughout the bible there is an oft repeated call for justice – for a just and equal sharing of God’s gifts in creation among all of God’s people, for an end to all corruption and greed. – And yet these imperatives have to be lived out in the real world that we inhabit – and that is not easy.

However, we cannot simply look on at all of this as if we were just observers. As Christians we are deeply and i9ntimately involved, we are challenged by the same biblical calls for justice. – Jesus didn’t say “love the Lord your God with some of your heart and some of your soul and some of your mind – but also reserve a segment of your heart and soul and mind for those other matters that don’t quite fit in to this equation. – He actually said “Love the Lord your God with ALL of your heart, with ALL of your soul and ALL of your mind.” –And that means that everything else – and I mean everything – must be affected and changed by your love of God.

And love of God will overflow into a deep and profound love for your neighbour. – A love that will seek and desire true justice for your neighbour. – And that’s not just your next-door neighbour but also your homeless neighbour, your Muslim neighbour, your black neighbour, your gay neighbour, your immigrant neighbour, your Christian neighbour, your atheist neighbour, your disabled neighbour, your addicted neighbour, your neighbour in debt, your starving neighbour.

No wonder that people who preached these things were seen as “turning the world upside down.” – Why aren’t we seen in that way, too?

Sermon preached on Sunday 1 May 2011.

In this sermon I left some questions unanswered so that those listening would be free to come to their own conclusions. – The Gospel reading was John 20. 19-31

On Friday, many of us watched the Royal Wedding (of Prince William and Catherine Middleton) in Westminster Abbey.

Here, surely, was the Church of England at its most splendid – providing the focus for a national celebration, watched by millions of people all over the world; cooperating with the state and the crown in moving pomp and ceremony; engaging effectively with the good and the great. – Here was carefully planned liturgy, well executed in a wonderfully decorated church, with fine music excellently performed. – Here was a bishop offering public advice to those in line for the throne on how to conduct their lives and their marriage. – And the clergy were as impressively dressed as everyone else! (The sermon, preached by the Bishop of London, can be read here  )

But how much of this would have been recognized by the risen Jesus as part of his vision, when he sent his followers in to the world to make disciples of all nations? How close or far away is this from what Jesus had in mind?

Well, in today’s Gospel we hear a story of the risen Jesus appearing to his disciples on the evening of the first Easter Day and apparently commissioning them for their future task. He breathes on them and says “Receive the Holy Spirit. – If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” – Jesus is commissioning his disciples and he seems to be entrusting them with a clear and specific authority – and the Church has often read these words in that way – as Jesus commissioning, not only his first disciples, but also their successors, his Bishops and his clergy, not only to forgive sins but also to make decisions about what needs to be forgiven and even, perhaps, about what may be unforgivable – authority to give guidance about what is right and what is wrong.

However, it is interesting to compare these words of Jesus in John’s Gospel with the corresponding story in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 24. 36-48) where the risen Jesus also appears to his disciples on the evening of the first Easter Day and also gives them a commission. –In both Gospels Jesus begins with a greeting of peace, but in Luke’s Gospel the words he uses for the commission are rather different. According to Luke Jesus speaks of a message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins which is to be proclaimed in all nations and of which the disciples are to be witnesses.

John’s version of the words of Jesus may be read as the bestowing of authority on the disciples, giving them the power and prerogative to forgive sins – or possibly not to forgive them. – Whereas Luke’s version of what Jesus says sounds more like a commissioning of the disciples to a way of life   characterised by repentance and forgiveness – characteristics which they are to show forth and witness by their own lives to people in all the world.

I wonder which of these alternatives do you think is closer to what Jesus had in mind!

Famously, though, there was one disciple, Thomas, who was not present when Jesus appeared to his disciples on this occasion. And when the other disciples tell Thomas what has happened he expresses doubt. – Usually his doubts are taken to be doubts about the resurrection itself, but perhaps Thomas is also doubtful about the claim of the disciples to have been given the kind of authority suggested in John’s Gospel.

At any rate, Thomas requires authentication in order to believe. – And whatever it is that the other disciples tell him has happened, or claim that Jesus said, is not sufficient authentication in Thomas’s view.

It is interesting to think about someone you know well and to consider what it is about them that most characterises who they are. – What is the one thing about them that you would still expect to recognise if everything else had changed? – Or if, perhaps, you hadn’t seen them for a long time what would be the one thing that would reassure you that this is the still the same person? – Would it be something about the way they speak, their attitude, the way they might greet you or the look in their eye? – Well of course it would be different for each person.

So what, then, is most characteristic of Jesus? What would you expect to remain the same even though everything else about him might seem to have changed? – Would it be his ability to perform miracles? Or the authority with which he speaks? Or the challenge he puts before the scribes and Pharisees of this world? What do you feel is most characteristic about Jesus?

Well, what Thomas wants to see and to touch are the wounds of Jesus. – These wounds, he considers, will provide the best authentication that this, truly, is Jesus risen from the dead.

Now of course the nail marks in Jesus hands and the spear wound in his side were only recently inflicted on his body – but they do speak of something deep in his character. – Jesus is wounded like this because of the way he indentified with others who themselves were wounded; – with the untouchable leper and social outcast whom Jesus touched and embraced and welcomed; with the chronically sick who, after waiting long, yearned to be healed, even though it was the Sabbath day; with the insane person condemned to a life among the tombs; with women bent double by their heavy burden or ostracized because of physical illness; with all those considered unclean and impure because of the job they did or because, like the Samaritans, they chose a different interpretation of the faith; and with anyone who might be labeled as a sinner.

It is because of Jesus identification with each of these people, in preference to the representatives of established official religion, that he was wounded; and it is through them that he identifies, in his death, with all the wounded of the world. – And, so far as Thomas is concerned, it is these wounds of Jesus that will most clearly identify him. It is in and through these wounds that Jesus will be recognized, even though everything else about him might seem to be different. – And without these wounds he would not be the same Jesus.

So I wonder how it seems to you. What do you consider to be most characteristic of Jesus? Has it to do with his wounds, or with the way of forgiveness that he taught, or is it something else?  

I conclude with a poem by Kate Mcilhagga (published in 1995)  addressed to the Thomas who waits to reach out and touch the wounds of Jesus. 

Put you hand, Thomas,
on the crawling head of a child
imprisoned in a cot in Romania.
Place your finger, Thomas,
on the list of those
who have disappeared in Chile.
Stroke the cheek, Thomas,
of the little girl
sold into prostitution in Thailand.
Touch, Thomas,
the gaping wounds of my world.
Feel, Thomas,
the primal wound of my people.
Reach out your hands, Thomas,
and place them at the side of the poor.
Grasp my hand, Thomas,
and believe,
when you feel me in the world’s pain
and in the world’s glory.

(This poem was originally included in “Human Rites: Worship Resources for an Age of Change. Published in London by Mowbray. 1995)

A SPECIAL EASTER CANDLE

      This year, instead of using the standard Easter Candle bought from ecclesiastical suppliers, we ran a competition to get a unique design for our candle. There were eight entries to the competition and the winner was Alisha Hesketh who attends a local primary school and is a communicant member of St Aidan’s Church.Her design was painted on to the candle using acrylic paint.

     It  shows drops of blood falling from the cross on to the earth where the land masses are shaped like leaves. The drops of blood remind us of the life of Jesus poured out for the world and the leaves remind us of God’s love for all created things. It also shows the Greek letters Alpha (Α) and Omega (Ω) and the number of the current year. These symbols are traditionally included  on Easter candles to remind us that Christ is to be found in every beginning, every end, and every present moment.

     We lit the candle for the first time at our 6.30.am. Service of Light on Easter morning. It will remain in St Aidan’s Church for the next twelve months, to be lit at all services during the Easter season and also whenever there is baptism or a funeral. If you are passing our church at any time do take the opportunity to come in and have a look.

     Thank you to Alisha and to all those who entered the competition. The other entries also included some very good ideas. – Perhaps we’ll run another competition next year.

Sermon preached on Good Friday 2011

So Jesus is dead!

After the sorrow of the supper, the suspense of the trial and the agony of the dying; his corpse has been taken down from the cross, embalmed with spices, wrapped in a linen shroud and laid in a tomb which is closed and sealed by a large boulder.

So what are we to do now? Where do we go from here? There is certainly nothing we can do that will undo what has been done. No amount of praying or faithful following or jumping to Jesus’ defence will make any difference now.

This is the end!

Of course you and I know that this all part of the liturgical year. We know that early tomorrow morning folk will be in church arranging flowers and dressing the altar ready for Easter and that on Sunday the church will be full, we hope, of people singing Alleluia!

But that is not how it was for the first disciples. For them this really was the end, and  they might have found themselves echoing the sentiments of Job, recorded in chapter 14 of that book, where he says:

For a tree there is always hope.
Chop it down and it still has a chance –
its roots can put out fresh sprouts.
And at the first whiff of water it comes to life,
buds and grows like a sapling.
But men and women? When they die they stay dead.
They breathe their last, and that’s it.
Like lakes and rivers that have dried up,
parched reminders of what once was,
So mortals are laid in the ground never to get up,
Never to wake again – never.

Again, we remember that Jesus had said he would die and rise again – and perhaps the disciples remembered this too – but people do say things, if they think their death is imminent, which are meant to comfort loved ones after they themselves have died – those wreaths of words that are sometimes offered at funerals:

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glint in snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

Only they did died!– And, however much these words may offer comfort, bereaved relatives know that they will never again see their loved one in this life; things will never be the same again.

This is how it must have seemed for those first disciples; and I think we miss something very important if we fail to reflect on their perception, if we fail to enter into their experience. – For their experience all those centuries ago resonates with the experience of so many people in our world for so much of the time today. – Those whose loved one has just died; those who have just been told that the doctors have done everything they can and now all we can do is wait and see; the person who has just been made redundant from their job; the person who partner or the child whose parent has just left; the person who has missed the deadline, or missed the train; – and those many, too, for whom any faith they may once have had, any idea of God, seems to have become empty and meaningless.

And if we look beyond our own local experience there are many more such people, like the woman described by a Korean man, Byung Chung who went in to his local post office one day and was asked by an old woman if he would write out the words of the telegram she wanted to send. “Certainly”, he said, “what shall I write?” – She replied, “Write, ‘Gunman killed your nephew’.” – Byung Chung comments, “I couldn’t help looking in to her face for a while in silence; but I could find nothing but numbness.”

Those disciples, too, must have been utterly numbed by what had happened, emptied of all hope, suspended in a kind of limbo. – How does one react in such a situation?

• Judas was overcome with despair and hung himself.
• Some of the other disciples hid themselves away or packed their bags in readiness for the journey home to Galilee
• The soldiers who had been given the strange task of guarding a tomb fell asleep out of sheer boredom. – And sometimes grief can feel like a profound boredom.
• And the women prepared spices and planned an early visit to the tomb to make a last and futile gesture of love.

And perhaps all there is to do in such situations is to wait and to hold on if we can to love, however futile it may seem.

Surely it is precisely in this interval between Good Friday and Easter Day that we learn about the true meaning of faith. – Not as some grand and unshakeable certainty, not a firm belief in all kinds of signs and wonders and impossible truths; – but a tentative and tenuous holding on to love in the face very real and unanswerable questions, a willingness to wait and see, even without hope, in the presence of utter tragedy.

In the words of T.S.Eliot, from his Four Quartets:

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

A PRAYER (from a book published by The Friends of Julian of Norwich)

Lord, whose friends knew the death of hope when you lay lifeless in their arms, bring us hope when all seems hopeless and faith when we have lost our way; and do not forsake us if we forsake you. Hear us and help us, O Lord.