Paul's Farewell

 12/10/25                       2 Tim 2:8-15.      St Peter’s.  Luke 17:11-19

This morning we are going to spend most of our time with Timothy, and then have a brief look at the gospel.

This letter of Paul’s is particularly poignant. It’s the last of his writings that we have and we see him in it at his most human. He’s in prison and knows his time is short ‘As for me I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time for my departure is near. I have finished the race.’ It’s not unusual for Paul to mentions the people he knows in his letters, but this comes across as writing to a family friend - he knew Timothy’s mother and grandmother - he’s seen Timothy growing up - and above everything  now he wants to encourage Timothy in his faith, and give him the best possible advice he can for a future that he knows he will not see. In many ways what he says is very simple - he doesn’t give Timothy a new teaching but points him back to the basics.  ‘Timothy always remember what you know and rejoice in it.’

And that is what we are going to do this morning. We’re going to spend some time remembering so that we can give thanks. 

I’m going to introduce three areas Paul suggested to Timothy then we’ll keep a short silence for us to recall memories of our own and then give thanks for them

Timothy - Paul says - remember what you have seen in me - remember how I have lived, how I have given myself to Jesus’s service - I was brought up as a Quaker and at a Friend’s funeral  the suggestion is made to the mourners that we give thanks for the grace of God we have seen in the life of our departed friend. Now it’s very possible that there will be people we are grateful to - for how they have shown us something of Jesus in the way that they live, something they have said to us, that something of God in them has also drawn us closer to God. But we don’t need to wait till someone has died to give thanks for what we have seen of God’s grace  in their lives. Give thanks for the person. 

Remember Timothy the hope you have in Jesus, - For us too - remember Jesus living and dying for us, his companionship when things have been difficult - the moments of grace that have sometimes come when we have felt flat or hopeless or trapped - we may have let him down, but still he is there - ‘if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself’ - the grace of knowing God walks with us his gift, but it doesn’t always come in a spiritual package- it can be a cup of tea when you’re at your wit’s end, an unexpected warmth of welcome.  Give thanks for the graces you have noticed 

Remember Timothy who you follow and the task you have been given - this we too need to remember - each of us are different, each of us is a different part of the body of Christ with a different role to play. What is our role? How do we play it? 

Jesus is our example - what does that practically mean for we who are not perfect. Rowan Williams suggests a guide, ‘What is in tune with the life of Christ? What opens, rather than closes, doors for God's healing, reconciling, forgiving, and creating work to go on? Even if we go on to make a mistake, we have not done it by shutting the door on God. We have done our best to leave room for God.’

 Give thanks for the task you have been given and the part you can play in the body of Christ.  

The people who have inspired us, the graces we have experienced, the tasks we have been given, the way we are Christian will be as individual as we are - this is what we are to remember - we are not called to be anybody else. The path Paul is pointing Timothy - and us  towards will lead him to the fulness of life that is our Christian hope

Now the the briefest of looks at Luke. Ten lepers all are healed, all are cleansed, but only one returns to give praise to God and it is this one - the outsider, the Samaritan - who is made well. What does this mean? All were all healed, all were cleansed but only this one was made well.

Sometimes I think we short change the gospel/good news when we simply focus on forgiveness, on cleansing - as though all that Jesus had come to do was to give us a get out of Jail free card. He came for  much more than that - Jesus came so that we would not simply be forgiven by God, he came that we might be reconciled to him, he came so that our relationship with his Father which was broken by our sin could be made good. Jesus doesn’t just want us forgiven - he wants our company;  he doesn’t just want that we should no longer be his enemy, he wants us as friends. 

This I think is what is happening in our gospel to the leper who came back - imagine the scene - he’s not coming back quietly - ‘Look look what God has done for me’ and he throws himself at Jesus feet. He is made well - perhaps this is what reconciliation looks like, perhaps this is what Paul wants Timothy to remember and perhaps this reconciliation, this making well, this loving companionship is what Jesus wants for us too

Approaching Advent

 16/11/25                         St. Peter’s               2nd before Advent 

Malachi 4:1-2a              2 Thess 3:6-13                  Luke 21:5-19

Spend too long looking at the news at the moment and you’ll come away depressed by the way the world works - where’s the integrity, where’s the compassion, where’s the justice. It can all be  rather gloom making so we ask the question - ‘In a world like this how can we live as followers of Jesus, Where do we start?’ 

The evidence of our readings is that what we see now is nothing new - there’s corruption in the OT, persecution in the gospel and even Paul’s injunction to make sure everyone did an honest day’s work isn’t particularly light hearted - our era isn’t unique; it’s an old story being retold with modern characters. 

This may not seem a very enticing start to a sermon but it wasn’t the intention of any of the writers to leave us feeling hopeless. Rather they are realists. It has always been difficult to live a life of faith but all our writers want us to make as good a fist of it as we can. The path through our three lessons is designed to restore our souls. Malachi diagnoses, Paul points people to what makes for health and Jesus urges us to hold firm to what is true. 

1) Malachi is a painful book to read and so it should be. It talks of the failure of those who should be upholders of God’s truth. Malachi is a book of God’s displeasure, of his weariness with those who should be the shepherds of his flock. The priesthood are short changing God in the worship sacrifices, people are feathering their own nests rather than bringing the tithes in, the worshipping community feel they are doing God a favour by turning up. Malachi  throws his hands up when he sees what is going on and concludes that Israel’s problems are down to a turning away from God and turning towards self interest. More than 2000 years later we know church people and leaders getting it wrong was not just a problem of his time - it’s been a continuing thread through history. 

There is a sickness of the soul in Judah because the people who should be helping people to God are pointing them in the wrong direction, they are proving false friends. Malachi focusses on the religious wrongs of his own time; what we need to discern are the things we get wrong, what for us - you and me - gets in the way of the forgiveness and reconciliation that are properly at the heart of church life. 

Cutting though he was even Malachi has a note of hope Two verses of Malachi - the first is of judgement -  See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. His diagnosis was pride and self interest have overtaken those whose concern should be the  kingdom of God; but the second verse is of hope - to God no problems need be terminal But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.

2) There are problems too in the second lesson but here we see Paul getting a handle on them.

There is a generally held supposition - not certain but plausible -  that amongst the church in Thessaloniki were a group of people who had an unhealthy interest in the return of Jesus - unhealthy because it so dominated their lives to the exclusion of anything else  that they ended up exploiting the rest of the church.

Jesus is coming back soon they thought - so what is the point in working? After all the church we are part of is a community of love - our brothers and sisters will look after us. Whilst we are waiting for the Lord’s return we will talk and philosophise and put the world to rights. It won’t be long before Jesus is here and we want to be prepared for that moment. Their particular theology suited living their best life, and it turned them into parasites.

Paul recognised people were using their claims of devotion to set aside their proper responsibilities and would have none of it. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

It is easy for us to to see where the Thessalonians were getting it wrong and we’re unlikely to face the exact same problem but there are lots of examples within church life, historically and today  where other sincerely held beliefs  have got out of balance and led to a church life with little connection to Jesus and the life he called us to. 

In terms of living a godly life it is not only theology that gives us scope for own goals. We can get so attached to our own feelings and prejudices they dominate our inner life and spill into the way we live. Paul would say, ‘See how unbalanced, bitter thinking can curdle your soul - it doesn’t have to be like that. Do what makes for health.’

Diagnosis from Malachi - putting our own interests before God corrodes the soul

Paul gives a route to health ‘ Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.’

3) In the gospel Jesus tells his followers that they will have to face persecution, betrayals and breaches of trust - our situation may not be as extreme as that of the early disciples - though in some parts of the world it certainly is - but it is worth noting that in the gospel passage there is a reminder that ultimately our faith makes sense because though it starts in this world it carries us through to the next - when things are going well this can stay in the back of our mind, but at times of loss , at times of difficulty, this hope in God’s future can be the  rock to which we cling - we may not face the persecutions of Jesus time but all of us have to cope with what life throws at us - not the church’s fault, not our fault just life as it is. Following Jesus gives us a pattern of living that will sustain us and honour God whatever our circumstances.. 

The 1st verse of Malachi talked of arrogance and evil but, there is another OT passage which is the antidote. It’s from Micah ‘what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’

Such simple things, who could possibly argue with them - do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God - Micah’s not legalistic - he isn’t giving laws, he’s saying adopt this attitude - open ended - there’s no limit to where it can take you. do justice, love kindness, and  walk humbly with your God This is the way of health we are called to

Malachi’s people needed to hear it - it would lead them from folly into God’s hope. For us too it is a reminder of our direction of travel. We’ll never finish doing them, we’ll never exhaust them, we’ll always be able to think of ways we could have done them better but how can we revere God’s name? by making them the pole that our compass points to.

For Paul, the Thessalonians doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God meant buckling down as a constructive member of the community.

For those people Jesus was talking to facing persecution and turmoil - what should they do, what does God require of them - justice,  kindness and a humble walking with God - humble does not mean feeble, or doormat - it is how we walk with our friends - at ease and guileless, true to the person God has made us to be. Here is hope and comfort. But it won’t just happen - we have to choose and go on choosing this way or our bias to self interest will scupper our best intentions   

We started with sombre readings because a mixture of false friends, own goals and the vicissitudes of life will always present a challenge to living well but the answer to that challenge is remarkably simple - not always easy to do, but as moral compasses go it is pretty straight forward

 what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness,  and to walk humbly with your God?

 17/8/25                          St. Peter’s                                Trinity 9  

Gal. 3:26-28        Communion and Baptism        Luke 14:1,7-14

The Welcome  

There’s always a mix of people at a Baptism service - some will feel comfortable in these surroundings, whilst for others it might be a bit peculiar; some people will know what they think about God - whether it’s yes or no - others won’t have made up their mind yet. 

 Whichever camp you fall into we want you to know you are very welcome, we are delighted you could be here to witness the baptisms of Kiera and Nylah. We want you to feel at home - now and whenever you might drop in.   

If you’re not quite sure about God it’s very easy to think that - if he is there I’m probably not his type so probably best if we just ignore each other.

If that is roughly where you are, you’ll have to take my word for it because I can’t prove it - but God doesn’t have a type - in fact, as our reading will show up it was often religious people Jesus found it hardest to get on with - so God doesn’t have a type - he welcomes everybody. 

Take Kiera and Nylah - I guess that even before they were born they were loved, even before they knew how to smile at you, they were loved - because that is what love is like, it really doesn’t need reasons. 

And this is how God thinks of each of us - in the service we’ll be concentrating on Kiera and Nylah, but I want you to know it’s true for all of us - before we could do anything God loved us - and He could no more stop loving us than you could stop loving the two of them.

This has been an extended welcome - because welcome is what this service is about - the welcome we at St Peter’s want to give to you the baptism party, but more importantly it’s about God’s welcome to Kiera and Nylah. 

The Sermon

When I welcomed you I touched on the indisputable truth that it’s very hard to get our minds round who or what God is - we can’t see him, we can’t touch him, and any idea of communication with him we have to take on trust. 

This makes a pretty dispiriting start to a sermon. But all is not lost..

In one of his letters Paul said about Jesus ‘In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.' What that means for us today is that everything we need to know about God we can get by looking at Jesus. 

Take welcome itself.  Welcome and hospitality are at the heart of the way of life Jesus came to bring in. For him they weren’t just the trappings of a polite society they were the thread that if you followed created a different kind of society, one that looks to include rather than exclude.

His life showed us something about the breadth of God’s welcome.  

Look at the people who gathered round him - there were fishermen, tax collectors, the poor, the wealthy, lepers, outcasts, Roman soldiers, people to whom many religious people wouldn’t have given the time of day. But they all got a welcome. 

Why did people want to meet him? He always seems to have treated the person he was talking to properly, he took them seriously, he was trustworthy. He was interesting to listen to - crowds gathered whenever he started to teach, he was good company we often read of him being invited to someone’s house for a meal. As a guest he must have been fun, his conversation would have been unexpected. challenging, exhilarating. This is what God in human form looks like - this is the life we are offered, this is the hope into which Keira and Nylah have been baptised.

Welcome doesn’t sound very controversial, but some hospitality isn’t so generous. It comes with strings attached.

I don’t know if you picked up the tensions in the gospel reading. Jesus had been invited to a party - it sounds to be more like a formal dinner party than asking somebody over for Sunday lunch - and it wasn’t a friendly invitation - the hosts were religious leaders who felt threatened by Jesus - he was undermining their role and they had invited him in order to catch him out, hoping he would put his foot in it, so that they could rubbish him, so they could ignore what he was showing them about God. Their hospitality had been weaponised

Jesus recognised what was going on and he brought them up short. 

‘Your parties are all show, they’re about getting the best seats and prestige. It’s you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’

This wasn’t his kind of hospitality, it was self interested not generous. It reflected personal ambition rather than love of neighbour, so he says, ‘You should be looking out for everyone. Don’t forget the vulnerable, the needy, the lonely - they shouldn’t be pushed out to the margins, they should be included too.’ 

This is what Jesus’s hospitality is like, this is what God’s is like too, because in Jesus the fullness of God is pleased to dwell.

Now we might well say ‘what a lovely idea’,  but a moment’s thought and we realise it’s much easier to say than to do - it’s not easy to get on with everybody, there are people we don’t feel at home with - but this picture of how broad and far reaching the welcome and hospitality of God are gives us a direction of travel. It gives us a task  - we are to create a community where all are welcome, where differences are a strength rather than a weakness, where the joy that Jesus brought to his followers is visible.

This is the hope into which Keira and Nylah have been baptised. They will find there is a lot to learn - that’s true for all of us -  but  they are being welcomed to a faith where there is room to grow. 

To take part in God’s welcome we have to accept it ourselves and Keira and Nylah’s baptism is  God saying welcome to them. It’s him saying I enjoy your company, let’s get to know one another - and whatever else they grow out of they need never grow out of this. 

Naaman and Elisha

 06/07/25                      St Peter’s                                    Trinity 3

2 Kings 5:1-15                                                          Luke 10:1-9

                   

When I looked at our readings I was struck by how similar the last verses of the two passages were:-

Naaman said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel’

 Jesus says, ‘Heal the sick and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.

I think Naaman would say, ‘But that’s my story.’

We’re going to follow his story by reading it again in short sections and trying to read between the lines.

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy

Aram is present day Syria - there was an on/off war going on between them and Israel -  they were certainly considered fair game for raiding.

Till his leprosy Naaman has been a very successful career soldier he’s risen to commander of the army. In his own sphere Naaman has been all powerful, his illness means that has to change.

How do we expect the sort of person who has risen to the top of the army in brutal fighting times to behave in the face of a debilitating isolating illness - fury? despair? Turmoil? Prepared to snatch at any straw at? All of those.

 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.  She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

We shouldn’t read these verses too easily.  Look at what they say about the relationship of the serving girl to the family - she has been taken captive in a raid, taken from her home to a strange place where she has no rights, yet she wants her master to be healed. She is quite possibly the least important person in that household, but Naaman and his wife have created an atmosphere where the girl is listened to, where she feels safe,  she is confident enough of her place to speak and know that she will be heard. She is also confident enough in Elisha to go out on a limb. How easily she could have thought ‘serves him right for attacking Israel’ or ‘will the prophet be interested’ but  enough care has grown up between them that she is ready to take the risk of speaking to her mistress, Naaman’s wife listens to her, and then Naaman listens to both of them 

 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

It may be a clutching at a straw, but it’s the only straw he has so he goes to his king who gives him permission to go into hostile territory to seek a cure - Naaman must seem irreplaceable to the King of Aram because he sends him off with a fortune. 

It hasn’t occurred to Naaman and his king that Elisha owed his loyalty to God rather than the king of Israel.   

As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

On the other hand the king of Israel knows full well he has no chance of persuading Elisha to do something he doesn’t want to do, so when Naaman meets him his first reaction is that this a pre invasion stunt  - it’s power politics - Naaman’s king is trying to create a diplomatic incident  as an excuse for an invasion - how on earth can he arrange a healing?

But he needn’t have worried

 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.

Not that it goes smoothly

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.  Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

This seems to me to be just rude of Elisha - he has asked Naaman to come to him but when he gets there he doesn’t even get inside the house, let alone see Elisha - is it any surprise that Naaman is in a rage. Humiliating enough to be going to weak neighbour Israel to ask for help anyway - he knew he was clutching at straws but now he’s been sent from pillar to post from shifty king to arrogant prophet - apparently with the express intention of making him feel small - the subtext - ’what a fool I am to be doing this, to be here at all’

The next bit seems to me to be really  impressive. This major military figure is in a justifiably foul mood  -‘I’m not going to the Jordan, how dare he? who does he think he is? It can’t have been easy for his servants to come up in the middle of his tantrum and tell him he’s over reacting  - brave servants - current events show us how badly the powerful can take contradiction, how ready they can be to hit out.

But his servants knew Naaman -and they trust him and care for him enough to come to him mid-rant people say to him ‘what have you got to lose by doing what the prophet said?’ And they were right even angry he was prepared to hear hard truths.

 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”  So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

He listened to Elisha, he listened to his servants and was healed.

 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.

The kingdom of God has come close to him.

What can we learn from how God dealt with Naaman? 

In the Pilgrim’s Progress the Valley of Humiliation is a place where vanity is stripped away and what survives is what is good and healthy and wholesome. This is the journey Naaman takes

Everything he defined himself by is taken. At the start of the story he has every human trapping of wealth and power. Head of the army, the person on whose arms his king leant on state occasions, great riches, but all mean nothing before his leprosy. The one thing that remains to him, that stands him in good stead throughout the story, are the good relationships he has built up with the people around him, however even that can’t help until the news reaches the smallest most insignificant member of his household - the Israeli girl captured in a raid. All the power he has counts for nothing but she has something to say about hope.

His king sends him the king of Israel laden with riches, but the wealth counts for nothing

He goes to Elijah - he is used to dealing with people of authority but he doesn’t get through the front door. His prestige counts for nothing.

He has to wash in the Jordan when there are much better rivers in Aram - national pride counts for nothing.

Power, wealth, prestige, national pride - all are vanity

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”

The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.

“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”

“Go in peace,” Elisha said.

 Naaman didn’t realise until the end of the story what God was doing.

We see God  speaking through the servant girl, his wife, the kings of Syria and Israel, prophet’s servant, his servants - it’s from them that he hears God’s voice to him pushing and calling him along the path to his healing. 

How do we hear God’s voice? - very occasionally directly, sometimes in a sermon, or a reading or a hymn or a prayer or in worship but very often it won’t be on a Sunday or in church, it will be through friends, family, colleagues through the week, talking about the things that make up our ordinary life - the problems we face, the solutions we try to find, How can we live well? How can we shape our life so that it shows the Kingdom of God. What are the values of the people around us? What do we see in our neighbours that is admirable, true, compassionate. And we will all be taken through the Valley of Humiliation.

Naaman had cultivated a habit of listening  to those around him which made it possible for God to be heard. That’s a very big thing we can learn from him - our situation, our circumstances, our company will often be the way God speaks to us. It was the people around Naaman that nudged him in the right direction - nudges that Naaman responded too. Of course we have to sift what comes to us  -what is good, what is selfish what is wise, what is folly- but if something seems of God we need to take it seriously. If we cultivate the habit of listening and treating others with respect then even when we are at our least receptive we keep open the possibility of being brought up short by a word which may not what we want to hear but points us in the direction of the Kingdom of God.

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