Why jobs don't come with emojis

 

What St Benedict has to say about hard work.

Where have all the women gone?

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury  on the fourth Sunday in Lent

It's Mothering Sunday,

so where are all the mothers?

None are mentioned 

in the Gospel,

not even Our Lady.

Where have all the mothers gone?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord stands

before a great multitude

of five thousand men,

no mention of women.

Indeed, Our Lord says,

"Make the men 

sit down."

What?

Are the women to stand?

You can perhaps see why

some people see the Church

as being anti-women

if the Lord Himself 

doesn't refer to them.

It is possible 

that there were only

five thousand men there.

But,

more likely, 

it is Jewish practice 

to count only Jewish men 

of a certain age.

This is the same reason

why St Joseph

and Our Lady

go St Joseph's home

in Bethlehem

for the census.

But it seems pretty unfair.

Women don't seem to count.

And here,

on Mothering Sunday,

mothers seem to be 

completely forgotten 

in the Gospel

and even

by Our Lord.

Oh dear. 

It does seem

like our critics are right.

No women priests

means

perhaps the Catholic Church

is just a club for the boys

after all!

Where are the Mothers 

on Mothering Sunday?

[PAUSE]

To see what's going on here,

we need to look.

at where the feeding 

of the five thousand

plus women and children 

is going.

First of all,

we know well 

that Our Lord 

values the dignity

of women highly.

He teaches them

in the same way 

as He teaches the men.

He hears their own voice,

not through the voice of their husband.

He values their faith

above the dead faith

of the rulers of society.

He even makes sure

that the first witness

of His resurrection 

is a woman

whose testimony 

is believed by men

contrary to the tines.

There are women

throughout Our Lord's ministry

valued and saved and made glorious

- equal to men in salvation.

Equal but not interchangeable.

But that's beside the point.

[PAUSE]

Yes, only men are counted

by Jewish tradition but

counting men only

comes from 

the view here that the man

is the head of the family.

You have only to look

at the long lists of names

in the Book of Numbers

to see that in action.

But, 

in a sense,

they aren't counting men only,

they are counting families,

and there are no families

without mothers.

Our Lord feeds five thousand families

five thousand surnames,

five thousand groups of people 

belonging to each other,

united in this meal 

in Christ.

And with what did He feed them?

[PAUSE]

Following on

from this feeding of 

five thousand families

comes a most profound teaching.

After this miracle 

Our Lord goes on

to say that His flesh 

is meat indeed,

that His blood is drink indeed.

That this teaching

follows on immediately

after this miracle 

shows the intention

of Our Lord 

to give us the Holy Eucharist

- the sacrament that binds us

to each other 

by binding us to Christ.

And those who are bound to Christ

are the Church.

Mother Church.

[PAUSE]

In less than a week 

after we celebrate

the motherhood of Our Lady

at the visitation of the angel 

we see her begin 

the arduous journey 

of nurturing her son

with her own flesh and blood, 

for that is what mothers do

through the umbilical cord

before their baby is born.

Likewise Our Lord,

like a mother 

nourishes us

until we are born in Heaven

through death

and into life

through the umbilical cord

of our human nature

which He shares 

with us.

This is Mothering Sunday. 

[PAUSE]

Of course,

Mothering Sunday 

is not the same as 

Mothers' Day

but here the two are 

inextricably linked.

One cannot think 

about Mothering Sunday

without thinking of Mothers

and this brings us back

full circle. 

Where are the mothers in the Gospel?

They are here

and they are venerated,

and they are valued

and they are cherished

and, if they are not,

then that is a sin.

"Honour thy father

and thy mother."

The mothers in the Gospel

are here

because the miracle

of the feeding of 

the five thousand families

brings them here

in this Church of Christ. 

Christianity

perfects and fulfils 

the Old Testament.

Those mothers hidden by 

the old convention

of counting only 

the men of the house 

are made manifest

in Christ's own ministry

and shown to be 

as supremely valuable

as everyone else.

If you want to know

where the mothers are in the Gospel, 

look around you.

Announcing the fruit of Anglican Catholic labour

 

Why Our Lady is good for the Economy.

Walking backwards to the Devil?

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent

Would you know

the Devil if you met him?

Some of the witnesses

who see Jesus' cast out a demon

clearly don't.

"He casts out demons

by the power of Beelzebub!"

they say.

The strange thing is

that they are indeed

witnesses of the miracle.

They see the demon

expelled from the man.

They have heard this man

speak when, before, 

he couldn't. 

So they have seen the effect

but they reject the cause.

Rather than see the truth, 

they would prefer to believe

that the Devil,

the prince of demons

was the cause.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord points out the irony here.

If you can't tell whether

a demon has been expelled by God 

or by the Devil.

Then you can't tell 

whether any demon

has been expelled by God

or by the Devil.

So, all the "proper" exorcisms

that have been performed 

by the Jewish authorities 

of the day

cannot be said definitively 

to have been by God.

As Our Lord says,

those who say that

He drives out demons by the Devil

are denouncing their own 

authority. 

They cut off the branch

on which they sit.

But if they are wrong

and Our Lord casts out demons

through the Finger of God

- the Holy Ghost

- then they are witnesses 

to God's presence with them

and must repent.

[PAUSE]

Even today,

there are those

who are afflicted 

with the same tendency

to attribute to the Devil

that which comes from God.

There are those Christians who say,

"Unless you believe what I believe

then you are a worshipper of Satan!"

But wait!

If you cannot tell 

whether another's belief 

is truth from God or a lie from Satan

then you cannot tell whether

you yourself are a "worshipper of Satan".

True, we believe that 

what our Church teaches

is right

and therefore,

we must believe that

those who do not believe 

what we believe are wrong.

Being wrong is part 

of human fallenness

and therefore deserves

compassion and forgiveness,

not condemnation.

We do not tolerate 

the wrong doctrine

but we expel it by refusing to adopt it 

and by calling out heresy.

Those who accept heresy

indeed separate themselves 

from the Church,

but we always should seek

to keep the door of the Church open

for them to come back.

We certainly cannot say whether

a different group of Christians

are "worshippers of Satan"

unless we see Satan being worshipped.

If we want to know 

the fruits of the demonic,

they are listed by St Paul

in his letter to the Galatians.

"Now the works of the flesh 

are manifest, which are these; 

Adultery, fornication, 

uncleanness, lasciviousness, 

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 

variance, emulations, wrath, 

strife, seditions, heresies,

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, 

revellings, and such like: 

of the which I tell you before, 

as I have also told you in time past, 

that they which do such things 

shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Christians of every sort

commit these faults, 

some on a daily basis,

but that does not make their

faith null and void. 

It just makes them

in need of salvation

through Jesus 

the Perfector of Our Faith.

[PAUSE]

Being a sinner

is not automatic Devil-worship.

Being a sinner

is not automatic damnation.

Being a sinner

is being in need of salvation

through Jesus Christ

and this salvation

is a process which begins at Baptism

and ends with our standing

before the Judgement seat of God.

God does not desire 

the death of a sinner

but rather that He repent

and live.

In our lives of repentance 

we will encounter the Devil

and we will encounter Christ.

We will,

at times, 

confuse the two 

- that's the consequence 

of The Fall

- but with Christ

we ALWAYS have the opportunity 

to repent and be part of His Church.

And that's a mark of the Church

we should recognise. 

Christ gathers,

the Devil scatters.

Again, 

St Paul tells us 

what to look for:

"the fruit of the Spirit is 

love, joy, peace, 

longsuffering, gentleness, 

goodness, faith,

meekness, temperance: 

against such there is no law."

Rather than focussing

on turning away from the Devil,

we should be focusing 

on Christ.

By focusing on the Devil,

it is as if we are 

walking backwards

and we stumble over more obstacles 

that he puts in our path.

By focusing on Christ,

we necessarily turn 

from the Devil

onto the right path.

[PAUSE]

It doesn't matter 

where we are now

as long as we are 

committing ourselves 

to our salvation.

God sees us not as 

black with sin

but rather grey with sin,

still possessing 

the whiteness of His image 

that has not been 

obliterated

but rather clouded

by our separation from Him.

And throughout our lives

spent turning towards Him,

He will purge us with hyssop

and we shall be clean.

He shall wash us

and we shall be whiter than snow.

That is our focus,

our way forward,

by facing forwards to Him.

Anglican Catholicism and the Culture Wars

 How can Anglican Catholics fit in a society at war?

The Dog's Truth

Sermon for the second Sunday in Lent

Perhaps you remember 

the tale of Greyfriars Bobby,

the little dog 

who was so devoted to his master

that he refused to leave

his master's grave side.

Perhaps you remember

how the townsfolk

looked after him 

and cared for him

until the little dog himself died

at the age of 16

and was buried not too far

from his master.

Some people think this is a legend,

but the statue that stands 

in Bobby's memory

is there for a reason.

There must be some truth 

in that story for such

a memorial to have been erected.

There is truth in that story.

[PAUSE]

"There must be truth 

in that story,"

thinks the Canaanite woman

as she tends to her dying daughter.

"There must be truth

that He heals."

The Canaanite woman

holds to these two truths,

the truth that her daughter is dying,

and the truth that lies in

the people's tales

about Jesus healing people.

So she goes to the Master.

And she will not leave,

clinging to these two truths

with all her might.

And she cries out

again

and again

and again and again and again,

so much so that 

people get sick of her crying.

"Send her away.

Don't bother the Master!"

But she holds to

the two truths doggedly.

She will see the Master

and He will heal her daughter.

Finally 

she catches the eye of God.

And He speaks truth:

"It is not meet

to take the children's bread

and cast it to the dogs."

A harsh rebuke?

Does she go away

reminded of her status as 

an outcast from 

the Children of Israel?

No. 

She knows another truth:

she is not Jewish and He is

but she is human

and so is He.

If He is the Messiah,

then He is merciful.

If He is the Messiah

then there is a crumb of mercy

that can fall for her.

She still holds doggedly

to the truth 

that He can heal.

He is truly the Master 

and she worships Him.

"Truth, Lord:

and yet the dogs eat

of the crumbs which fall

from their master's table"

For with Lord there is mercy.

And with that mercy

comes Divine admiration. 

"O woman, 

great is thy faith:

be it unto thee

even as thou wilt."

Notice how,

He calls her "woman"

- a term of respect,

a term of recognition of status,

a term of admiration, 

not a term to be used

to address a dog.

How can a master admire a dog?

How can a town 

set up a statue 

to a little dog 

who clung on to the truth 

of his devotion 

to his master?

To see an insult

in comparing this woman

with a dog

is to miss the breakdown

of the barriers 

that separate 

the Children of Israel

from the children of men.

For Jesus Himself

is the Bread of the Children of Israel

and He gives Himself freely

to a woman

whom the Children of Israel

would call a dog.

And He does so

because she has faith -

the knowledge that 

there must be some truth

in the stories she hears 

about Jesus,

even if she doesn't know

the whole truth.

He gives Himself to

this "dog"

willingly, 

in admiration 

with mercy and love.

And, in receiving this bread

she becomes one 

of the first gentile members

of the Church.

[PAUSE]

For us,

this faithful woman disappears into history -

a story, many would say 

- but if a story, then a story 

in which there must be some truth.

Indeed,

a story in which there is The Truth

a true story!

and this Truth 

that even now 

she holds onto 

in a state of Eternal bliss,

we, too, hold onto,

doggedly.

Setting the Anglican Catholic record straight.

 

Yes, we are pro-life. Here's why.