kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth» Grace

Meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ

Paul Sibley — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:00:24 +0000

Today is the First Sunday of Advent, or Advent Sunday, which is the first Sunday in the Church’s liturgical year. The season of Advent takes us from today, right up until Christmas Eve. It’s a penitential season of preparation and waiting. “Advent” means “coming”, and there’s a sense of eager expectancy, as we look forward to the coming of Christ into the world at Christmas.

In this season of Advent we also celebrate the coming of Jesus into our lives daily, at our death, and at the end of the world. And this thinking about the end of the world, especially, leads us to thinking about God’s judgement.

God’s judgement of us is a subject I’m never entirely comfortable with. The differences in theology between the conservative and liberal wings of the Church just confuses me. If I’m asked for an opinion, I usually just admit that I don’t know, but am happy to leave myself to the mercy of an all-loving God, a God who I know loves me far more than I ever will myself.

I heard a story a while ago, though, that just struck a chord for me. I gather it, or something very like it, has been used as an illustration about judgement in the more evangelical Churches for many years. But coming from a somewhat more catholic tradition I hadn’t heard it before.

The story is told of a man who was taken to court to pay a £1,000 fine for a crime that he had committed. The man had no money to clear his debt and pleaded for mercy from the judge. The judge could not just let the man go free or else justice would not have been done. So he ordered that the fine of £1,000 must be paid. Then, in an act of self-sacrificing love, the judge stepped down from his chair, went to the clerk of the court, and wrote a cheque to pay the fine in full. The judge then said that because the penalty had been paid the man was free to leave the court and return home. The judge had ordered that the penalty be paid, but had then paid it himself. This illustrates both the justice and the love that God offers to each of us, by sending Jesus to pay the price and the penalty that our wrongdoing deserves.

As I said, this story really struck a chord for me. I’m not totally convinced by the idea of God sending Jesus to be punished in our place (penal substitution?). Although, once we remember that Jesus is in fact God in human form, it makes more sense. But if it helps us to feel less fearful of the judgement that must surely come — the Bible seems pretty clear on that — then it must be a good thing. Because if we’re less fearful, then perhaps we’ll be more ready to meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin to the
light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect for The First Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Increase your grace within us

Paul Sibley — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:00:48 +0000

Today is the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The phrase I want to reflect on this week is, “Increase your grace within us”. I tend to think the terms, “God’s grace” and “God’s love”, are more or less interchangeable. So when I pray for God’s grace to be increased within me, I’m praying for God’s love to be increased within me.

I think there’s one particularly special way we can all experience an increase of God’s grace, his love, within each one of us. Give it away! Give it all away! And keep on giving as much of it away as you possibly can. And the amazing thing is, it won’t diminish what you yourself receive. Just the opposite in fact, it will increase it. The more you give God’s love away, the more you yourself will experience it. And the more you experience it, the more it will change you into the person God calls each of us to be.

The picture above is one that used to be in the header of the blog, so some of you may recognize it. It’s a picture taken of what is usually quite a mundane scene, looking out over the rooftops of the Oxmoor Estate in Huntingdon, where I live — I took it in our back garden. That mundane scene of a few rooftops, a few trees, some clouds and a bit of sunlight, have been transformed by coming together in just the right conditions into something really quite staggering. I’d never seen colours so vibrant in the sky before.

God’s grace and love are a little like those “just right” conditions, and can transform our lives from the mundane into something really quite amazing. When we allow God’s love to shine in our lives, like the sun is shining in that picture, it can transform them into something amazing. And one of the best, and easiest, ways to allow God’s love to shine in and through us is by giving it away, sharing it with everyone we meet. In that way, God’s love and grace will transform us into the amazing people he always meant us to be … even me. Not a bad ideal to be aiming for.

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ

Paul Sibley — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 09:00:38 +0000

As I said, this story really struck a chord for me. I’m not totally convinced by the idea of God sending Jesus to be punished in our place (penal substitution?). Although, once we remember that Jesus is in fact God, it makes more sense. But if it helps us to feel less fearful of the judgement that must surely come — the Bible seems pretty clear on that — then it must be a good thing. Because if we’re less fearful, then perhaps we’ll be more ready to meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin to the
light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect for The First Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Increase your grace within us

Paul Sibley — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:00:51 +0000

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Grace

Paul Sibley — Sat, 01 May 2010 08:00:07 +0000

I like to think that this story about an attempted assassination attempt on the life of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558 can give us a glimpse of what the grace of God means to us; and what we might do as a result of receiving it.

Grace

In 1558, Elizabeth I became queen of England. Faced with a country that was reeling from religious differences, Elizabeth once again made the Church of England the official religion, although retaining some Roman Catholic traditions in the church by issuing the 39 Articles of 1563, which was designed to prevent the country from further turmoil.

But all were not satisfied with these reforms and one woman dressed as a male page and hid herself in the queen’s bedroom to await the convenient moment to stab the queen to death. She did not realize that the queen’s attendants would be very careful to search the rooms before Her Majesty was permitted to retire. They found the woman hidden among the gowns and brought her into the presence of the queen, taking from her the knife.

Realizing her case was hopeless; she threw herself down on her knees and pleaded with the queen as a woman to have compassion on her and to show her grace.

Queen Elizabeth looked at her coldly and quietly said, “If I show you grace, what promise will you make for the future?”

The woman looked up and said, “Grace that hath conditions, grace that is fettered by precautions, is not grace at all.” Queen Elizabeth caught it in a moment and said, “You are right. I pardon you of my grace.” And they led her away, a free woman. History tells us that from that moment Queen Elizabeth had no more faithful, devoted servant than that woman who had intended to take her life.

That’s the way the grace of God works in the life of an individual. Having received it he or she becomes a faithful servant of God. Not because they are forced to, but because they want to. Just as the woman, having been pardoned, was free to walk away and leave the incident in the past; so we, too, are free to walk away when we’ve received God’s grace.

God’s Goodness

Paul Sibley — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:00:39 +0000

I have been reading a little about Charles Simeon, considered by many to be the brains behind Evangelicalism. While I wouldn’t consider myself an Evangelical — at least, not exclusively so — it’s easy to agree with what he wrote about meditation in the last paragraph of the short piece that follows, which landed in my inbox this week, and prompted me to look a little further.

God’s Goodness

Charles Simeon was born in 1759 and educated at Cambridge University. When he was twenty-three, he was appointed the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge. Led by the Holy Spirit, he began preaching the Gospel in a non-compromising manner for over fifty-three years. Initially his congregation was hostile to his forthright preaching, but as the years passed he became known as one of the leading clergymen in the Church of England. Holy Trinity became a center of teaching and preaching and Simeon’s preaching sparked England’s great Evangelical Awakening. He was the catalyst for the formation of important evangelical societies including the Church Missionary Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Once a student asked him, “How do you maintain a close walk with God?”

He replied: “By constantly meditating on the goodness of God and on our great deliverance from that punishment which our sins deserve. Keeping both of these in mind, we shall find ourselves advancing on our course; we shall feel the presence of God; we shall experience His love; we shall live in the enjoyment of His favour and in the hope of His grace. Meditation is the grand means of growth and grace.”

One place I found that had what appears to be some very good information about Charles Simeon is at the Church Times, here. I hope that link will stay live.

Meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ

Paul Sibley — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:00:23 +0000

As I said, this story really struck a chord for me. I’m not totally convinced by the idea of God sending Jesus to be punished in our place (penal substitution?). Although, once we remember that Jesus is in fact God, it makes more sense. But if it helps us to feel less fearful of the judgement that must surely come — the Bible seems pretty clear on that — then it must be a good thing. Because if we’re less fearful, then perhaps we’ll be more ready to meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin to the
light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect for The First Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The New Wisdom

Paul Sibley — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:00:40 +0000

Here is the text of the sermon I preached, more or less, when I officiated for Evensong at Godmanchester on Sunday, The First Evening Prayer of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. It was, as it always is, a great pleasure and a privilege to be able to sing the Office, and to preach the sermon.

The New Wisdom
Isaiah 33:13-17 — Matthew 6:19-end

A Jewish Gospel
Saint Matthew begins his Gospel with the words,

“An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).

However, he doesn’t just have a dry-as-dust interest in family trees, though it has to be said, the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, isn’t the most exciting place to start reading the Bible!

“Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon . . .” (Matthew 1:2-4).

and on through forty-two generations in all, I’m sure you don’t want me to read them all: the list finishes with,

“. . . and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah” (Matthew 1:16).

Matthew wants to give Jesus his place in history. He wants to show the Jewish roots of the Christian gospel.

Saint Matthew’s has been described as the most Jewish of the Gospels. He never misses a chance to show how the events of Jesus’s life, are a fulfilment of patterns and predictions in the Old Testament. Jesus is the climax of the process, which began with the Jewish kings, prophets, and lawgivers.

Wise people
But there was another strand in Jewish religion, which we often forget about, and which Jesus also fulfilled. These were the wise people — although all of them were male, I’m hesitant to call them ‘wise men’, because you’d most likely think of them as the three wise men who visited Bethlehem, but those were non-Jewish, or Gentiles. These ‘wise people’, who I’m referring to, were secretaries in the court of the Jewish kings.

As the job of these ‘wise people’ was reading and writing, they were frequently called ‘scribes’. They most likely based their work on the example of the Egyptian courts. There, the scribes of the Pharaohs wrote books describing the wisdom, that was needed by those who were to advise the monarch, often in the form of proverbs or wise sayings.

The Jewish scribes in the court of King Solomon, which had close contacts with Egypt, made collections of wise sayings, several of which appear in the biblical Book of Proverbs.

Matthew may have seen himself as standing in this tradition — our New Testament reading (Matthew 6:19-end) this evening certainly has that feel about it. And he’s the only one of the Evangelists to record Jesus saying,

“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52).

Wisdom
What then was this wisdom that the scribes wrote about? To a large extent it was practical common sense. The scribes would’ve most likely learnt to write by copying out proverbs written by their predecessors. And as they wrote they would’ve absorbed much of what they were reading, and so learnt to be a good advisor to the king.

Along with the Book of Proverbs, the scribes are credited with writing several other books, such as Job, Ecclesiastes, and several of the Apocryphal books, which, together, we call the ‘Wisdom Literature’.

Many of these contain poems in praise of Wisdom, who is imagined as if she were a wise teacher. One such, from the Book of Proverbs is:

“Happy are those who find wisdom,
  and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver,
  and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
  and nothing you desire can compare with her.” (Proverbs 3:13-15)

The moral teaching of Jesus
Saint Matthew’s Gospel then probably regards the moral teaching of Jesus, as not only fulfilling the Jewish Law, but also taking on the mantle of the teachers of wisdom. His wise advice on loving God and loving your neighbour is common sense.

The teaching of Jesus, as presented by Saint Matthew, could justly be called, ‘the New Wisdom’.

The call of the tax collector
It’s hard to believe sometimes that this is the same despised tax collector whom Jesus called to be one of his Apostles.

The people despised tax collectors in Jesus’s day, because they’d bought — from the hated occupying Roman government — the rights to collect customs dues from everybody who crossed the provincial boundary, in a particular place. They were able to charge whatever they liked, and did — extortionately.

So Matthew wasn’t only a cheat and a swindler, but he robbed his own people on behalf of their enemies — he was a quisling and a traitor. No wonder he was hated. But Jesus saw through all of that, and was able to see the potential in the despised and hated tax collector.

Only by grace
Perhaps though, it’s because of his own recent history, that Matthew knew so well, that it’s impossible to put that New Wisdom into practice. On your own, that is.

As Saint Paul said, describing his days as a Pharisee,

“I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Romans 7:19).

It’s impossible to follow the wise teaching of Jesus, until we receive grace.

The Cross
So in the second part of his Gospel, Matthew moves on from wise teaching and describes the death and resurrection of Jesus. His suffering and his triumph bring us the grace that enables us to obey his commandments, and to begin to follow his wise teaching ourselves, to begin to behave wisely.

Without the cross, wisdom is just wishful thinking. With the cross at its centre, the Christian teaching isn’t just wisdom, but Gospel — the good news that God loves us. It’s this that elicits our love for God in response, and gives us the grace to serve with wisdom.

Thank you
Thank you, Matthew, for writing your Gospel to bring us the good news of God’s grace, which is more precious than jewels, and nothing we desire can compare with it.

Increase your grace within us

Paul Sibley — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:00:39 +0000

Increase your grace within us

The phrase that jumps out at me from today’s Collect, the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, is, “increase your grace within us”. I think the terms, “God’s grace” and “God’s love”, are virtually interchangeable. So when I pray for God’s grace to be increased within me, I’m praying for God’s love to be increased within me. I’m sure regular reader’s of the blog won’t be surprised to see me talking about God’s love … again.

You may well recognize the picture I’ve used to illustrate this post; it’s a part of one I posted as a Friday Foto a few weeks ago (there is a larger version on my Flickr page too). It’s a picture taken of what is usually quite a mundane scene, looking out over the rooftops of the Oxmoor Estate in Huntingdon, where I live — I took it in our back garden. That mundane scene of a few rooftops, a few trees, some clouds and a bit of sunlight, have been transformed by coming together in just the right conditions into something really quite staggering. I’d never seen colours so vibrant in the sky before.

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Amazing Grace

Paul Sibley — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:00:15 +0000

Amazing Grace

Here is another video from the folks at the Central Christian Church of Las Vegas (pictured above), the people behind the video I posted last week about, “Why people don’t come to Church“. “Amazing Grace” has always been something of a favourite of mine. It is sung very well in this video, but the singing is almost immaterial; it’s the content that counts. They have managed to get across, in a very simple way, what that “amazing grace” might mean in today’s world.