Homily for Christmas Night

St. Andrew’s Church in Blackhill has a board with writing in large letters outside the building - what used to be known as a “Wayside Pulpit.” It’s a sort of static sandwich board on which the church can put up words for people to ponder as they go past. At the moment the board reads, “Christmas is not about our presents - it’s about Christ’s presence.” Something to think about - perhaps…

Christmas is about God coming into our world, the presence of his Son with us in human flesh just like our own. But we shouldn’t get too solemn about it and certainly not curmudgeonly. If we don’t enjoy the presents which people give us, then we’re rather missing out on the celebration. Whatever the gift may be, we’re to receive it with gratitude. If it comes as a surprise, our response shouldn’t be, “Oh no, I don’t get them a present.” It should be “thank you - how kind.” And if you want to put a religious spin on it, the gifts we receive point us to God’s great gift to us in Jesus. If we think we haven’t earned it, well that’s the whole message of Christmas - God comes to us and loves us, even though we don’t deserve it.

At this point I need to take a look at what I’m saying. Lamenting to a friend that I hadn’t wrapped any presents or even opened all my cards and that I  still had a sermon to write, he replied: “I haven’t written one either, but it’s not as though people come for the sermon.” Well, maybe you have… But I’m encouraged by something I saw somewhere which sang the praises of carol-singing: “Carol services are a corrective to clerical over-interpretation of the Christmas story.” In other words people will find what they are looking for as they sing and worship - and clergy need to be aware that they might be trying to find things in the story which are simply never going to click. Just be open to the joy of Christmas - and share it.

So don’t get too serious... That’s the only encouragement I need to share with you some terrible Christmas jokes, though they may be better than the ones you get in your crackers.

What’s brown and creeps around the house?

Mince spies!

 

What do you drain Christmas dinner brussel sprouts with?

An advent colander!

Have you heard the one about the Microsoft Advent Calendar? 

It crashes every time you open the windows!

Around Christmas time each year my dad used to work in a tiddlywink factory. But he didn’t like it. He said it was counter productive.

What's the most popular wine at Christmas?

‘Do I have to eat my Brussel sprouts?’

What did the bald man say when he got a comb for Christmas?

Thanks, I'll never part with it!

Mum, Can I have a dog for Christmas?

No you can have turkey like everyone else!

What happens if you eat the Christmas decorations?

You get tinsel-itus!

Mother bought a huge turkey for Christmas dinner.

'That must have cost a fortune!' I said.

'Actually I got it for a poultry amount,' she said.

Doctor, Doctor I'm scared of Father Christmas.

Doctor: You're suffering from Claus-trophobia.

 [Jokes courtesy of Grove Books December email - and I didn't use them all!]

That’s enough of those, I think. The great thing about a joke is when you don’t expect the punchline. It just takes you by surprise. The Virgin Mary expected that she would live out a quiet, hopefully contented, life in Nazareth with her husband-to-be, Joseph the Carpenter. They didn’t know that their whole lives would be disrupted by the message of the angel. Shepherds looked after their sheep by night - another cold night on a Judaean hillside, until they are roused by a chorus of angels. The message of the birth of God’s Son is given not to the priests of the Temple but to pretty rough-and-ready men who lived on the edges of respectable society. And when wise men in the East decide that a star in the sky means something special is going on, the surprise for them will be that the new-born King is not to be found in a palace in the capital city - he’s in a very ordinary dwelling in the humble backwater village of Bethlehem.

What is God’s surprise for you? St. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is the Word of God and the Light of the world:

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him;

yet the world did not know him.

11 He came to what was his own,

and his own people did not accept him.

That’s the tragedy of the human story. That God’s love is held out for us as a gift, but so many of us think it can’t possibly be for us. Perhaps we think it will put us under some sort of obligation. Perhaps we just can’t believe that we’re good enough to receive it.

But the truth of Christmas is that God’s love is for all - for you, for me, for our families and friends… and for the people we don’t get on with as well, and even our enemies. God’s love is bigger than our presumptions, prejudices and sheer inability to comprehend. And it’s so big that it comes to us in one as small as a tiny baby.

Christmas at St. Cuthbert's

Sunday 23^rd December          

4^th SUNDAY OF ADVENT

10.30a.m. Sung Parish Eucharist

                 - an All-Age Service with Holy Baptism

Monday 24^th December         

CHRISTMAS EVE

 

6.00p.m.    Carol Service with Christingle – join us for this lovely service with candlelight and Christmas bells.

11.30p.m. Midnight Mass of Christmas

 

Tuesday 25^th December        

CHRISTMAS DAY

9.30a.m.     Parish Eucharist with Carols

                   - a service for all ages.

Sunday 30^th December        

1^st  SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS

10.30a.m. Sung Parish Eucharist

 Tuesday 1^st January                       

NAMING OF JESUS

11.00a.m. Eucharist
                 - with Prayers for the New Year

Sunday 6^th January                        

EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD

 

10.30a.m. Sung Parish Eucharist

May the joy of the angels & the peace of the Christ Child

be God's gift to you this Christmas!

 

Cause for Good News…

This is the "View from the Vicarage" article which appears in our new Parish Magazine - now online:

 

 

We know how much we need news we can be glad about. In making notes for what I might put in this edition of the parish magazine, I found myself writing about the defeat of the Church’s attempt to bring forward the Consecration of Women as Bishops - and about Bishop Justin leaving us so soon to be Archbishop of Canterbury. That’s all rather depressing. You can read about it elsewhere in this magazine.

But here I need to remember that this is the edition of the magazine that covers Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. These are the seasons that tell us that there is Good News even when everything might seem dark. Don’t jump too quickly into Christmas mode… First there’s Advent, the time of waiting for Christ’s coming. It’s about knowing there is good news ahead, but we have to make sense of it in the here and now. Then there’s Christmas - God touching us as he comes in the fullness of our humanity as the Child of Bethlehem. And then Epiphany is about the recognition of what God has done - that his glory is there to be revealed in Jesus.

God calls us to trust him - and the sign of his trustworthiness and enduring love is revealed in Jesus.

 

Archbishop Rowan had more cause than most to be disappointed at the failure of the legislation on women bishops, but as ever he rose to respond with charity and deep wisdom. As he made his farewell speech to General Synod, he quoted St John of the Cross, who said: ‘Where there is no love, put love, and you will find love.’ For the word “love” he suggested we could substitute the word “trust.” What can you say when someone tells you, ‘I don’t trust you anymore.’? ‘Where there is no trust, put trust, and you will find trust.’ ‘Where there is no love, put love, and you will harvest love.’I heard those words of John of the Cross preached by someone else a few days later. I asked her if she’d been inspired by hearing what Archbishop Rowan had said. In fact she hadn’t heard or read the speech at all. They were words which she already knew and which sustained her.

Where there is no love, put love, and you will harvest love.’ That’s our calling. And at Christmas we see that God has already done just that.

Martin Jackson

Rediscovering the Church - honesty, integrity and charity

Sometimes you know that anything you say or write about a particular subject or situation is going to be quite inadequate. The picture above is Bishop Alan Wilson's response to Tuesday's General Synod vote on women bishops. No further words were needed to express what so many have felt.

It's a terrible way for Rowan Williams to end his time as Archbishop of Canterbury. A man who is so deeply holy, wise and concerned for all people - within and without the Church - who has been so unjustly derided for actions and leadership which have been sacrificial in their costliness - is rewarded with a final defeat for all his efforts. And our Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby, takes on a role in a Church which is characterised by intransigence on the part of a minority and numbness on the part of those who dared to hope we might move forward - and whose hopes are dashed.

Knee-jerk responses are unwise. But what needs to be said first is that the Church as a whole has not voted to defeat the consecration of women as bishops. 42 out of 44 dioceses of the Church of England voted in favour of this move. Within General Synod itself the House of Bishops voted almost unanimously for the motion, the House of Clergy overwhelmingly so. And the House of Laity voted by a large majority in favour of the legislation to ordain women to the epsicopate. The legislation was defeated simply because every "House" within General Synod must vote in its own right by a two-thirds majority in favour of of the motion - and the House of Laity's majority failed to attain this proportion by six votes. So disregarding the clearly-expressed recorded majorities of thousands of Anglicans in a process of several years leading to the final vote, a total of only six lay members made all the difference and defeated the resolution.

At the time of the vote I was with a group of Durham clergy in dialogue with clergy from the Diocese of London - just a few miles from Church House. We were led by Canon Stephen Cherry who has identified a basic problem in the notion of a House of Laity existing as an entity separate from Bishops and Clergy. The Laity are not in fact "non-clergy." The true understanding of the laos is that it consists of the entire body which is the holy people of God - lay and ordained. The question must be raised, just who are the House of Laity representing.

Stephen argues the case for "a single Synod." I'm not sure... There is something to be said for a system with checks and balances. But it is also obvious that these checks and balances have developed into a system for creating blockages and the thwarting of true discernment.

The answer is not - as some are saying - to ask Parliament to legislate for the Church nor to remove the Church's exemption from Equality Legislation (would they apply this to the RomanCatholic Church at the same time?). The Church must find its own way. But it needs to do so honestly and with integrity. There has been so much concern to produce legislation that would "protect" those who cannot accept the ordained ministry of women. And the end result of this process is that those who sought this legislation have voted against it anyway. Surely it is inconceivable that a process involving so much hedging-about can be envisaged for the future.

How else can there be further progress unless there is simple recognition that women - just like men - are created in the image of God? A single clause resolution that it shall be lawful to ordain a woman to the office and work of a bishop in the Church of God is all that is necessary. And then stop talking about our different genders and look to our common humanity. There will be those who are unhappy about this, but they haven't been persuaded from intransigence by legislated protection. Instead as a Church we need to resolve simply to treat each other with a charity which has so far been terribly denied.

Meanwhile as Sam Wells points out, for those who feel like giving up on the Church, then try the Kingdom: "Throw yourself into life among the least, the last, and the lost and rediscover the church there."

And lest we feel that the sinking ship picture betrays a jaded resignation by Archbishop Rowan, here's a link to his remarkable response to the outcome of the Synod vote.

Reaching the end of October

Well... there's less than half an hour to go as I write.

October began with our Harvest celebrations - it's impossible to show just how beautiful the church was, but still more important was the spirit of celebration and the generosity of giving both of food and goods for The People's Kitchen in its work with homeless people and in terms of cash for USPG the main mission society we support.

Then the stuff of parish life until we reached the end of the month with more celebration. Over the last weekend many members of the congregation joined in celebrating the 70th birthday of Ian Severs and we were joined in church by many visitors from far and wide for Dobson Heron's 50th Anniversary of Ordination to the Priesthood.

Much more about what we've been doing - and what we are planning in the November issue of our Parish Magazine (click and get it here in colour). Included is this "View from the Vicarage."...

In the midst of the storm…

 

As I write “Superstorm Sandy” with its hurricane force winds is raging in the north-eastern states of the USA, its devastation reaching into Canada. Up to 65 million people are affected, 6.5 million are without power, much of New York and New Jersey is flooded - and that includes seven subway tunnels which serve the city. The Stock Exchange has been closed on the grounds of bad weather for the first time since a great blizzard in the 19^th century. And heavy snow is falling or anticipated now over a wide area as weather systems collide. Tens of thousands have been forced from their homes or await rescue. The damage will cost tens of billions of dollars.

 

Perhaps that gives us a sense of perspective on the quite abnormal weather we’ve had in recent times. With little cause for complaint we can be swift to grumble - though when things get really bad that is what often brings out the best in us.

 

I had personal cause for concern since my brother lives not far from New York City just over the New Jersey border in Pennsylvania. He sent me a message that things were “pretty wild” with the power going on and off. Later that a tree had gone down in his neighbour’s garden - and then the power seemed to go off for rather longer (though obviously the internet was still working!) - I haven’t heard any more since.

 

There has been loss of life - though thankfully on nothing like the scale hurricanes have caused in less developed countries. But the damage now being suffered shows us just how vulnerable we have become to the forces of nature. Our society depends upon our ability to control the environment - when we lose control technology, transport and so many other systems fail and we feel our helplessness. How do we give that voice?

 

Rather than complain, one of the clergy my brother works with posted this:

O ye Waters that be above the Firmament, bless ye the Lord:

praise him, and magnify him for ever…

O ye Lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord:

praise him, and magnify him for ever.

O let the earth bless the Lord:

             let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.

O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord:

praise him, and magnify him for ever.

 

You might recognise the words of this biblical hymn. How would we respond? In the midst of the devastation, there is still a cause for wonder at the power of Creation of which we are but a part.

Reviewing the situation…

(This is from our new October Parish Magazine - you can read the whole of it online by clicking the link. Meanwhile we've been updating the Calendar and Sermon / Homily pages on this blog, as well as our parish website)

It’s time for my “Ministerial Development Review.” Doesn’t time fly? This is the process by which clergy are encouraged to assess where they are in the exercise of their ministry and priesthood - and they are now helped by a parallel process of gathering “feedback” from lay people in their parishes and others with whom they work.

I first engaged with this sort of process on a voluntary basis many years ago. We called it “appraisal” then - no forms were filled in and no records made of the discussions. But it was a positive experience - the more so because the person who did the appraising was himself a volunteer, and he wasn’t going to pass anything on to anyone else. After that the diocese set up a scheme of “Ministry Review,” recommended but voluntary. I’ve had an excellent peer consultant in this process and till recently met with him every three or four months - mainly I would do the talking, but his silences were a wonderful steer on the new directions I should be considering.

But a number of years ago things got official. The “Pastoral Conversation” was introduced - and with it came forms and a meeting with a member of the Bishop’s Staff Team. I don’t think you could be forced to do it, but there’d probably be some frowning if you didn’t. I happen to think that there does need to be a review process for all clergy - but I wondered just what happened to all the sheets of paper I covered in ink, and how much anyone took notice of the summary of the “Conversation” itself.

The latest incarnation is the “Ministerial Development Review.” It’s required of everyone who holds a post by “Common Tenure”… which means the Castleside bit of me needs to do it, but the Benfieldside bit could plead exemption by virtue of “Freehold.” Along with the paperwork I’ve submitted, eight people from the two parishes and beyond have been asked to fill in “feedback forms.” I’m very grateful to them, because they looked dreadful. As for my own form it asked me to start by listing the objectives agreed at my last MDR and to indicate both the extent to which they have been achieved and what has come from working at them. So I rang the Archdeacon to say there weren’t any. Apparently the form has changed - and I should review my “Role Description” - which has never been agreed (in fact it’s still a work in progress). I’ve managed something in the end.

The moral is, I suspect, that you’ll get so frustrated by the whole process that it forces you to think what you really should be doing with your time. Perhaps it’s by such processes that we all learn!    

Weddings and wonder

Congratulations to Ed and Rebecca Turner who married in St. Cuthbert's on Sunday 26th August. A massive congregation included fellow-members of both St. Cuthbert's and the Durham Musical Theatre Company - as a result the singing was better than we've heard in a long time! And all in all a wonderful occasion marked by faith and love - evidence of what is to be hoped for.

With two weddings between our two churches last weekend, the pace is picking up in the parishes. Our website has been updated and the new Parish Magazine for September is now online - click for more details on what we're up to!