The Tower Cross was/will be floodlit on the following dates for the following reasons:

23rd September 2010 to celebrate the marriage of Tracey Rich to Mark McKenzie in Gibralta

22nd September 2010 in memory of Frank and Bill Hooper

21st September 2010 in memory of Eric Griffin

6th September 2010 in memory of Marjorie Banks

5th September 2010 in memory of Alec Knight’s birthday

3rd September 2010 in memory of Ted Crabb

2nd September 2010 in memory of Peter Goldsworthy on our 60th Wedding Anniversary

27th August 2010 in celebration of Dr Nicholas Adkins’ 50th birthday

10th August 2010 in memory of Bob Smee’s birthday

1st August 2010 in memory of a loving father Richard Chisman JP

24th July 2010 in celebration of Andrew & Jenny Lewis’ 45th Wedding Anniversary

23rd July 2010 in memory of Iris Purches 90th Birthday

18th July 2010 in celebration of Gareth & Gemma Burney’s 1st Wedding Anniversary

12th July 2010 in memory of Joan Rodgers

11th July 2010 in celebration of Debbie & Gordon King’s 1st Wedding Anniversary

10th July 2010 in memory of Margaret Heather’s 79th Birthday

6th June 2010 in loving memory of George Young

22nd May 2010 in memory of Sally Robertson

17th May 2010 in memory of Len Tiller

13th May 2010 in celebration of Ray & Rom Durman’s 60th Wedding Anniversary

13th May 2010 in memory of Adam Knight’s 40th Birthday

11th May 2010 to celebrate Gillian Fox’s birthday

10th May 2010 in memory of Joan Best

9th May 2010 to celebrate Andy & Helen Best’s 18th Wedding Anniversary

30th April 2010 for the funeral of firefighter James Shears

27th April 2010 in loving and happy memory of Serena 1950-1998

25th April 2010 in memory of Gilbert Petrie

23rd April 2010 in memory of Barbara Hooper

15th April 2010 in memory of Maisie Evelyn Goring

13th April 2010 in celebration of Isaac Diamond’s 1st birthday

10th April 2010 in memory of Tom Rodgers

9th April 2010 in celebration of Gloria & Les Barker’s Wedding Anniversary

31st March 2010 in memory of Gertie Prime

24th March 2010 to celebrate Helen Best’s 40th birthday

22nd March in memory of Tom Uphill

21st March 2010 to celebrate Tom & Leonora Magee’s Ruby Wedding

9th March 2010 in loving memory of Mont Cockwell

1st March 2010 in memory of Anne Rigden’s birthday

28th February 2010 in memory of Sid & Norma Rogers

27th February 2010 in memoryof Margaret Partridge

24th February 2010 in memory of Sally Robertson’s birthday

23rd February 2010 in loving memory of Peggy Nesta Parker

22nd February 2010 in memory of Stephen Powell

21st February 2010 in memory of Eric Copp

7th February 2010 in memory of Margaret Heather

6th February 2010 in memory of Roy Bugden’s birthday

31st January 2010 in memory of Reg & Jessie Banks

19th January 2010 in memory of Gordon Flay

13th Janury 2010 in meory of John Day’s birthday

12th January 2010 in memory of Don Welch

10th January 2010 in memory of Adam Knight

7th January 2010 to celebrate Tom & Beryl Leyshon’s 65th  Wedding Anniversary

5th January 2010 in celebration of Terry and Sally Adkins Wedding Anniversary

19th December 2009 in memory of Gordon Jacobs

16th December 2009 in memory of Winifred Anne Turner

12th December 2009 in memory of Annette Rivington’s birthday

11th December 2009 in celebration of David Frake’s 40th Birthday

7th December 2009 in memory of Max Homer’s Birthday

1st December 2009 in meory of Mary Sugars

26th November 2009 in memory of Marie Jamieson

25th November 2009 in memory of John Frake’s Birthday

24th November 2009 in memory of Ann Rigden (funeral/memorial service)

20th November 2009 in memory of Terry Brown

16th November 2009 on Ann Rigden’s death

14th November 2009 in loving memory of Alec Knight

8th November 2009 in memory of Edith Turner

4th November 2009 in meory of Tosh Jamieson

31st October 2009 in memory of Eric Rogers

24th October 2009 in memory of Kathleen Petrie

20th October 2009 in memory of Irene Friend

9th October 2009 in memory of John Frake

8th October 2009 in memory of Rosamund Bignell nee Petrie

27th September 2009 in memory of Joe Day and also in memory of Dennis Raymond Moore

22nd September 2009 in memory of Frank and Ada Cooper and Marjorie Banks

21st September 2009 in memory of Eric Griffin

19th September 2009 in memory of Dudley & Julia White (New Zealand)

16th September 2009 in memory of Gwyneth (Sally) Richardson

8th September 2009 in memory of baby Amy Wade

5th September 2009 in memory of Alec Knight’s birthday

3rd September 2009 in memory of Ted Crabb

1st August 2009 in memory of Richard Chisman JP

12th July 2009 in memory of Joan Rogers

11th July 2009 on the occasion of the Wedding of Debbie Plant and Gordon King

10th July 2009 in memory of Margaret Heather’s 78th Birthday

20th June 2009 in celebration of marriage in Oberammergau, Germany of David Randall & Victoria Smith

1st June 2009 in memory of Max Homer

22nd May 2009 in loving memory of Sally Robertson

17th May 2009 in memory of Len Tiller

15th May 2009 in celebration of Margaret & Quenten’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary

13th May 2009 In memory of Adam Knight’s Birthday

10th May 2009 in memory of Joan Best

9th May 2009 in celebration of Andy & Helen Best’s 17th Wedding Anniversary

8th May 2009 in memory of Gwen Aldridge

2nd May 2009 in celebration of Jenny and Fred Cutler’s Sapphire Anniversary

27th April 2009 in memory of John Case

20th April 2009 in memory of Mark Williams

There is something almost nonchalant about the first line of our Gospel reading: “One Sabbath day he was teaching in one of the synagogues”. We tend to think of Jesus being in opposition to the established religion of his day, but in fact outside of Jerusalem and away from the Temple Authorities, he was very much part of it. He represented a more liberal easy going strand of the tradition and frequently taught in the synagogues around the country. Our Gospel reading was one such Sabbath morning and everything was going swimmingly until Jesus had the audacity to heal a woman. She wasn’t asking Jesus to heal her, that wasn’t why she was there, she was there because it was the Sabbath and she wanted to honour God by offering her worship, she had just turned up that morning as was her habit. When I say she ‘just turned up’, I should say she had made her way there in great discomfort crippled by the spirit that prevented her standing up straight. It was a measure of her love for God that she did so. Jesus saw her need, sensed her love for God and full of divine compassion commanded her healing. The woman’s response was immediate; she didn’t stretch out her limbs to demonstrate to the crowd the extent of her healing, she knew deep down that something had happened, so she burst into spontaneous joyful praise of God. 

Hurray and praise God we want to shout in unison with her but there followed a jarring note. The leader of the synagogue stood up and denounced Jesus for healing on the Sabbath; it’s a form of work he said, so Jesus was breaking the Law. Jesus replied that providing for the basic needs of one’s animals is not considered work, and this woman’s need for healing could not have been more basic, by inference is she to be regarded as less than an animal? Jesus challenged the synagogue leader to get real and recognise the grace of God in action, a response warmly welcomed by the crowd. That synagogue leader stands for the countless people down the ages who have found the living God profoundly challenging and disturbing. He wanted to live with the comfort and security of the Laws and a God who did what he was told by human beings. It was the God in a box syndrome, God neatly packaged within human criteria and thought patterns, such a God is safe, he doesn’t challenge us, life is predictable, we know where we stand, we know if we do all the right things we should get our reward. But the living God is not like that. The living God refuses to be packaged by human beings, just when we think we have him sussed we open the box and find it is empty. The living God is the God of surprises as Jesus showed when he preached the kingdom accompanied by signs and miracles. 

Now I wonder, how many people could tell me what is the fourth commandment is? Yes – it is the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. The first four commandments are about God; you shall have only one God, you shall make no graven images, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, and then keep the Sabbath holy. The remaining six commandments are about our relationship with each other – no murder, theft or adultery, honour mother and father etc., but the first four are about our relationship with God. The point about the Sabbath was that it was a day to be different. Without a day on which to remember what we are for, and who our God is, we can get into the habit of thinking only of ourselves and our own needs, we become self-centred. The Sabbath should be a day that turns us back to God and so away from self and towards others. It’s a day in which the whole community was meant to be brought back to its real purpose, and what is its purpose? – In the words of the prophet Isaiah “to take delight in the Lord…. and ride upon the heights of the earth”. A splendid way to talk about uplifting worship and taking delight in the joy of being alive – rejoicing in our common heritage as children of God. 

The leader of the synagogue had lost the plot in his obsessive keeping of the Sabbath. Go back 80-150 years in this country and we too had lost the plot and I dare say many older people can remember long boring Sundays as children when they weren’t allowed to do much because it was the Sabbath. Unfortunately we are a society that has lost the plot in the other direction now. Sundays are no longer special days, days which families spent together enjoying each other’s company, days in which we remember who we are and our common heritage as children of God. Few in our society demonstrate the devotion of that woman dragging herself to the synagogue to worship God despite crippling pain, if anything the opposite prevails and even committed Christians tend to ration their Sunday observance. Sundays have become much like any other day. Those with jobs may well find themselves having to work. Shops are open and all sorts of activities like sport now take place on a Sunday. There is nothing special about the Sabbath, gone are the days when you would wake up and know it was Sunday because it was quieter. We have lost the rhythm to life that having a different day once a week gave us as a society and with that loss has gone part of what helped us to cohere as a society.

But as the Bible says we reap what we sow and the consequences of ignoring the first four commandments are becoming obvious in our difficulties in keeping the remaining six – those that govern our relationships with each other. Immorality, adultery and family breakdown is rife, theft and casual dishonesty are increasing, there’s an attitude these days, which says ‘do what you like but don’t get caught’. And the trouble with worshipping false Gods is that they leave us unsatisfied, so we never have enough, we always want more, so we break the final commandment – though shalt not covet’. 

Consequently what sort of society have we become? Well there is much talk in the Press and on television at the moment about how similar our society has become to Ancient Rome. They point to the multi-cultural nature of society and the prevalence of Gymnasia in every town and the renewed cult of fitness and the body beautiful. They point to the proliferation of different deities as people in a sense created their own gods and of course they point to contemporary sexual mores and point out how similar, in virtually every respect, these are to ancient Rome (although Rome didn’t practice abortion it did practice infanticide of new born babies). Interestingly Rome didn’t have a Sabbath there were about 80 public holidays a year but no regular rhythm to the week. The subtext that goes with these observations is that now we have thrown off repressive Christianity we are getting back to how humans were meant to live a more natural liberated form of life in which we are free to ‘be ourselves’ – shorthand in my book for the gospel of self-fulfilment. 

What these observations fail to consider is the astonishing speed by which Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire – less than 300 years after Jesus Christ. If life in pagan society was so good and natural why did people turn to Christianity so readily? Could it be that life in Ancient Rome wasn’t all it is cracked up to be by people who look back with rose-tinted spectacles? Could it be that these false god’s people created in their own image failed to satisfy? Ancient Roman writers often used to comment on the astonishing degree of love and care Christians showed towards each other and to strangers, because, let us not kid ourselves, for most people life in Roman times was nasty and brutish and short. Its rulers keep the simmering tensions in check by putting on brutal public spectacles for entertainment. Some of our reality TV shows, which humiliate the participants, remind me of the atmosphere of a Roman amphitheatre. Ancient Romans saw a different quality of life modelled by Christian communities and as we can see in St. Paul’s letters, they heard a gospel preached with signs like Jesus’ healing of that woman and both those facts should challenge us if we purport to follow the God of surprises and seek the kingdom of God. 

The 10 commandments remind us that true fulfilment comes from the quality of our relationship with God and others, it is in giving that we receive, that is how God designed us to be; if we live only for ourselves and what we can get, then happiness and self-fulfilment will be illusive. It must make our creator weep to see our contemporary society, for He loves us deeply, – the opening words of today’s Old Testament reading from Jeremiah remind us how much we are loved “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you”. Wonderful words reminding us how precious each and everyone one of us is to the God who designed and called us to live in community with Him and with others and not to live in the self-centred pursuit of so-called ‘self-fulfilment’.

Almighty God

We pray that you will speak to us through your word and guide us in the ways of truth so that we may serve your will and purpose. In Jesus name we pray Amen. 

Good morning It’s good to be back with you after a rather lengthy absence.
I am pleased that this year you will have enjoyed some summer weather as well as us. We return in good spirits feeling fully refreshed. Whilst we have been away there have been some changes here in church in particular the Lady Chapel has had a make-over and I must say from a personal point of view how light, spacious and uncluttered it all looks and feels.
One of the great difficulties in the maintenance of churches and it sometimes occurs in our homes things keep getting added and before you notice it’s happened there’s hardly room to move.
Well my take on the Chapel is that there is now room for God. Also as an aging celebrant I am much relieved that the steps in the Chapel floor have gone.
One of the reasons that these improvements have been made possible is of course down to the generosity of a lovely lady – Ann Rigdon. Who served this church in a wonderful ministry during her life and then in her death bequeathed us a legacy that could fund this and a number of improvements to this lovely place of worship.
Ann was of course one of many that I would term Lady Saints who have served and continue to serve in many ways in this church, and in all churches around the world. Yes we men do some things that are useful so we would like to think, but where would the church be if it wasn’t for our generous self sacrificing ladies. 

In scripture the women in the history of God’s people have played a remarkable part and although the focus is on primarily the actions of the men our bibles ripple with the commitment and self sacrifice of women and the amazing things that God has done through them. 

Sarah, Abraham’s wife, Hannah the mother of Samuel Ruth who became the wife of Boaz are just 3 examples from the Old Testament and then there are the many women during Paul’ ministry who opened their homes to enable the early Christian churches to flourish. There is no doubt in my mind that the most significant woman of all time is Mary the mother of Jesus. It is her life that we celebrate today The Blessed Virgin Mary. Having just spent a couple of months in France and visited a number of churches large and small we were very much reminded of the esteem held by the Roman Catholic Church of Mary the mother of Jesus.

Mary was the young woman not much more than a girl by today’s standards who was chosen by God to be the means by which He could come and live with us. To engage in the human experience and to personally deliver his promise of redemption and salvation into eternal life. We would perhaps find it difficult to understand the significance of the commitment God placed on her in a society where strict rules of conduct particularly in respect of women were applicable in those times. She was fortunate to be betrothed to Joseph a man who was in tune with God and was obedient in his role. The response from Mary on being told by the Angel Gabriel that her destiny was in God’s hands was the wonderful words that have been handed down to us in the Magnificat.

In her humble acceptance of her role in the coming of the Messiah she praises God in all his might and magnificence. Mary had been well taught in the history of Gods people and recognised that God’s promise which had been handed down from generation to generation was to finally come to fruition through her. This young woman was chosen by God to be the pathway for His arrival in human form to live among His people and experience the human condition. Mary is referred to as the Blessed Virgin Mary because scripture tells us that the partner in her conception was the Holy Spirit of God. Many people in the church, including some senior figures find the notion of a ‘Virgin birth’ difficult to believe whether you find it difficult to accept or not my personal view is that if we choose to disbelieve that part of the Bible narrative then it’s because we place limitations on the power of God. From the experience of those who have encountered God in some significant moment in their lives it is apparent that there is no limit to what God can do. 

We see in the life of Jesus His ability to bring about miraculous healings that cannot be scientifically explained and every day someone somewhere is experiencing that life changing power of God’s Holy Spirit with physical and or spiritual healing. These are manifestations of an awesome and inexplicable power which will continue to baffle us because of our limitations not Gods. God chose Mary to begin life and grow into a new baby and then ultimately into a fully grown man. He also chooses us. Just as he came to live with us for a while in Human form He comes to us again and again so that his spirit can live and grow within us and enable us to be fully grown. 

Our response is as important as Mary’s. God sent His Son for a purpose. That purpose is all about you and me. It’s about helping us become the kind of people He wants us to be. Kind, compassionate, loving, tender, and self sacrificing. That is what we expect and hope from all mothers and that’s what God wants for all his people. Mary’s example is just that, and we continue to give thanks that in her God chose a humble and remarkable woman. And we also give thanks to God that He continues to inspire many more women in His ministry among His people.

Father God

We give thanks for the life and example of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Help us to reveal those blessed qualities in the way in which we live our lives.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Since the 2nd World War we have seen an explosion of what we have come to call consumerism. We have developed the capacity to make vast numbers of goods cheaply, couple this with the fact that technology is moving so fast that goods are designed to be out of date within a few years and most of us find our houses are full of stuff. Much of it ‘might be useful one day’ or is obsolete but we grew attached to it in the few short years that it was current and we can’t quite bring ourselves to chuck it out. The temptation then to build or move into a bigger barn is ever present. Today’s Gospel reading is truly a Gospel for 21^st Century Westerners, we are part of the 20% of the First world consuming 80% of the world’s resources, and consuming those finite resources at an ever accelerating rate. Climate change is just one indication of a resource being stretched to breaking point so this is a reading of great relevance for our society today. 

What is the nub of the matter? St. Paul as usual puts his finger right on it when he says in the letter to the Colossians in that list of earthly things which we need to put aside, he says ‘greed which is idolatry’. When we chase after consumer goods, when we measure our worth by the quantity and age of our cars or computers, when we work all hours to earn the money to afford these things we are being swept along in the consumerist tide. When those things become the most important objective of our lives we are making those things into our Gods we are committing idolatry and breaking the first commandment. ‘You shall have no other Gods but me’. In today’s Gospel Jesus challenges us to live differently but how? Well since I last stood here I have had two extraordinary experiences, first a visit to Las Vegas a city dedicated to gambling and excess – a modern day equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah. A city built in a desert that uses vast amount of energy just to keep cool. When we consider the plight of this world, the lifestyle exhibited at Las Vegas is obscene. Then last week I was privileged to ‘atone for my sins’ by attending the Passion Play in Oberammergau. It was an intense and harrowing experience and when we got to our guest-house that evening I needed a brandy. The Play showed me that you don’t have to depict the violence in graphic detail (as Mel Gibson did in his recent film of the Passion) to find it a traumatic event. The worst part was watching the main characters, Caiaphas, Pilate, Peter and Judas dance to a tune of their own frailties and positions in society, a dance that led remorselessly to Jesus’ death. 

The Play is largely based on John’s Gospel, which constantly refers to ‘the Jews’ as the opposition to Jesus and the people ‘responsible’ for Jesus’ death. Hitler famously used a visit to the 300^th anniversary play staged in 1934 to hijack the Play for his own political ends. This has led to extensive revision of the script since then to counter act the charge of anti-Semitism. In some ways this has been overdone and it might have been better just to have explained more about the context of the time. When John talks about ‘the Jews’ he means the High Priests and the Council who ran the Temple and ruled as a theocracy in the small part of Palestine known as Judaea. They ruled on licence from the Romans a sort of client government. Provided they kept the peace and Rome collected its taxes, Rome was happy, but for good measure the Romans changed the High Priest every two or three years just to keep the incumbent on his toes. For the High Priests they benefitted from the wealth which flowed by way of gifts and temple taxes and recent archaeological finds suggests they lived in fine villas on the west side of old Jerusalem. Represented on the Council were the Sadducees and Pharisees two of the main ideological groups within Judaism. But Judaism was incredibly diverse at this time and many devout Jews, like Jesus, resented the behaviour of the priestly cast and some wanted nothing to do with the Temple and its ceremonies. The Essenes is one such group we know about and Jesus had much in common with them. 

The Play starts with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey followed swiftly by a scene of a conversation between Pilate and Caiaphas that I found utterly realistic. Pilate says to Caiaphas the Passover is coming up, we know the population of Jerusalem is going to swell by 10 – 20 times, it is traditionally a tinderbox and we don’t want any trouble makers like this Jesus disturbing the peace and that Caiaphas holds his job as long as he delivers his side of the bargain and keeps that peace. Caiaphas replies he is well aware of his responsibilities and immediately sets about planning with the Council how they are going to dispose of Jesus. They needed no second invitation – the Council had been after Jesus for some time, incensed by his parables like that of the vineyard tenants in which Jesus, non too subtly, likened the High Priests to tenants who did not deliver to the owner his due and who mistreated and ignored his messengers (the Prophets) and then killed his heir – a reference by Jesus to his own fate. Judas is drawn into their plans and is depicted in the Play as being misled and tricked by Caiaphas into revealing Jesus’ whereabouts. I think this was unlikely. Judas Iscariot, the clue is in the name, was probably an Iscarii a group of knife wielding militants intent of overthrowing the Romans and establishing an independent Israel. This dream was shared by most of the Disciples who thought Jesus would be their new King but they were politically naïve compared with Judas was far more militant and practical. I think he had seen Jesus act with great power in healing, in calming storms etc and was mystified by his inaction during holy week so thought to himself I shall put Jesus in a position where he is forced to use his power. Too late Judas realised his mistake and bitterly regretted his actions. How many of us have done things we’ve bitterly regretted and wished with all our heart we could undo it? Judas unable to forgive himself, unable to believe his sin was forgivable was driven to take his life. 

By contrast there is Peter who equally betrays Jesus. He is not the first who has declared unwavering allegiance to Christ but failed to stop and consider the cost of discipleship. Peter, though bitterly regretting his behaviour, is capable of believing he can be forgiven and in that moving resurrection scene on the shores of Lake Galilee (which wasn’t part of the Play), Jesus faces him with his actions, tests his commitment and then issues those words ‘follow me’ – the call to discipleship which Peter must have thought he would never hear again. 

Throughout the Play the interplay between Caiaphas and Pilate is fascinating. They jostle for power and try to embarrass and manipulate each other and this is more important to them than the life of an innocent man. At one point Pilate having suggested he should release Jesus their King as harmless gets the High Priests and people to shout back ‘we have no king but Ceasar’ which was the equivalent of Arthur Scargill saying Mrs Thatcher was a great Prime Minister! Caiaphas eventually won the encounter by stating Jesus had been found guilty of crimes deserving death but only Pilate could order an execution and if he failed and an uprising resulted then Pilate would have to answer to Rome. Both displayed a lack of moral courage and scant regard for human life. There was an impregnable fortress called Herodium just 12 miles out of Jerusalem. If public order had been their real concern it would have been a simple matter to have whisked Jesus out there for the duration of the Passover festival.

As I watched these four characters come up against the innocence and purity of God in the person of Jesus and then systematically fail Jesus because of their own frailties and the mechanics of the earthly politics they were caught up in, I couldn’t help being reminded of my own frailties, my selfishness, my pride, my ambition, my consumerism and those are just the ones I feel able to mention publicly. Compared to the purity of Jesus I felt soiled. All I could do was to lay these frailties before the Cross – to offer them to the love so abundantly poured out on the Cross and say Lord help me to deal with these. I was also reminded of my last visit to Oberammergau 40 years ago, which turned out to be our last family holiday for within two years my Father had died. His death was devastating for me as a lad of twelve and my Christian journey has consisted of much pain being laid before the Cross and receiving healing from Him who has borne everything for love of us. 

The Play finished with a glimpse of the Resurrection, very understated both in time and content from what had gone before. But this glimpse was challenging, it was full of potential and challenged us to go out from the Play recognising how much we had in common with Pilate, Caiaphas, Judas and Peter but equally to make that glimpse of resurrection a reality in our lives. Romans 8:28 says ‘All things intermingle for good for those who love God’, it doesn’t deny good and bad things happen because they do and some people find themselves having to cope with appalling situations and difficulty, but it says that when we respond with love for God ‘because he first loved us’, when we respond with love the redeeming power of the resurrection is released into our lives and into whatever situation we find ourselves in. It doesn’t necessarily mean a wand is waved and things are miraculously better but we can be given the strength to cope, the will to make changes, the capacity to love when we thought we had nothing left to give. This is the potential of Christ’s redeeming love revealed in his death and resurrection, the challenge to us is whether we want to make a reality in our lives. Amen.

The Rt Revd. Michael Perham Bishop of Gloucester, The Rt Revd. Dr Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ramsbury & Rt Rev. Moses Den Bul Bishop of Wau (Southern Sudan), honoured us with their prescence.

Over the past few weeks in the letter to the Galatians we looked at Paul’s conversion and the nature of the Gospel he preached. In particular we saw how he argued that those parts of the Jewish Law which set Jews apart from the pagans, Sabbath Observance, Circumcision and Food Laws, those laws no longer applied, they were a stumbling block to people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. We noted how this caused considerable controversy in the early Church and that a group of conservative Jewish Christians had been going round telling the new Churches founded by Paul that Paul was mistaken and it was necessary for people to be circumcised etc.

The letter to the Galatians was written in response to this. Paul was hopping mad at the activities of the ‘party of the circumcision’ as he calls them, but it forced him to write a deeper theological rational for his teaching. It was not sufficient to say ‘we have seen the Holy Spirit at work in these people’s lives without circumcision therefore it is an unnecessary practice’ he had to come up with a reasoned account which made sense of why the Law had existed, what was God’s purpose in it and also what about that other section of the Law which dealt with morality- right and wrong, did that no longer apply as well? The letter to the Galatians was Paul’s first attempt to address these issues. The letter to the Romans written several years later is a much longer much deeper reflection on these topics, Galatians though gives us the bear bones of the argument.

In Chapter one Paul expresses astonishment that they have turned away so readily from what he had taught them then he outlined his own calling by Jesus. The purpose was to remind them that he may not have been one of the 12 disciples but he had received his call by a direct revelation from Jesus. In Chapter two he reminds them of the compromise hammered out at the Council of Jerusalem and that he Paul was commissioned by the leaders in Jerusalem to preach to the pagans, and that he had publicly criticised Peter for not eating with pagans when visiting the Church at Antioch. He closes the chapter with the bold assertion that it is by faith in Jesus not by adherence to the Law that we are saved.

In Chapter 3 Paul starts by reminding them of the miracles performed among them before they had even heard of the Law and challenges them to see these miracles occurred because they believed and had faith in Jesus Christ. In that regard they are like Abraham and this is one of Paul’s crucial arguments. Long before God gave the Law through Moses, Abraham had put his faith in God, believed in God’s promises and this was reckoned to him as righteousness, he was justified by his faith. So what was good enough for Abraham was therefore good enough for the pagans. But this being the case what was the purpose of the Law? Paul’s answer to that is that the Law was a sort of interim measure, to define the chosen people as a sign to other nations and to specify right and wrong until such time as God revealed his definitive act of salvation through Jesus. In last week’s passage Paul referred to the Law as our Guardian until Christ came and we could be justified by faith. Now that he has come the Guardian is no longer needed, we have, if you like, come of age. Now all people can be children of God through faith in Jesus and therefore there is no distinction between Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female we are all one in Jesus Christ, heirs of the posterity of Abraham.

So far so good but if the Law no longer applies how should we behave? As we are saved by faith does it mean we can eat drink and be merry and do whatever we like because our faith has saved us? Paul’s answer to this comes in Chapter five which we have heard today. Essentially he says we should live in the power of the Holy Spirit. We received the Spirit at Baptism it resides in our hearts such that we want to cry out to God Abba Father, we need to learn to listen to the Spirit within us guiding our actions. Over time the action of the Spirit sanctifies us, makes our lives holy and whole such that our behaviour turns from self indulgence and we show the fruits of the Spirit in our lives – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self control.

This then is the basic outline of the Gospel Paul preached, and it is well worth going back to read Galatians all the way through with the background I’ve given because what I have not been able to put across is the passion of the man, his yearning for people to come to faith, his anger at those subverting his Gospel, his love for the people in Galatia. Paul was feisty to say the least. It is also interesting to reflect on the pattern of the Galatians experience. They came to faith as a result of Paul’s passionate preaching accompanied by signs and wonders but as those experiences receded so they fell prey to the notion of religious practice. Doing things for God was altogether easier than maintaining a vibrant living relationship with God. So the notion of obeying the Jewish Law with all its’ rituals fell on fertile soil.

Doing was and still is easier than being, easier than the emotional effort of relating. But it is in the vibrant relationship with God that the Holy Spirit works her transforming role in our lives, it doesn’t happen by our doing good works for God. Those works can only be the fruit of our relationship not the means by which we justify ourselves to God. The issue which reared its’ head so long ago in the Galatians Church is still very true today. Let us pray..

Lord help us to avoid the temptation of being busy for you but instead to be busy with you. We ask that your Holy Spirit would be active in our hearts transforming us into your likeness, so that whatever deeds we do in your name we do to your glory and not for our own justification. Amen

Today is the last of the five major festivals of the Christian year. Let’s see if we can name them…

Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity. Why are those the five major festivals? They tell us the story of God’s action and plan for the world through Jesus Christ. God came as one of us at Christmas, lived on earth as a human being. At Easter through his death and resurrection Jesus brought about our reconciliation with God and at Ascension he returned to heaven taking our humanity with him, blazing a trail for us to follow assuring us that death is not the end. At Pentecost we celebrate receiving power from on high to help us live the Christian life, which brings us to the Trinity or tri-unity…. 

We have probably all seen the car sticker which says ‘thank God for Jesus’. Muslims are very puzzled by this and say ‘how can you say Christianity is monotheistic, i.e. believes in one God, when you say things like that’. It shows how we must be careful in the language we use about the Godhead. The Trinity is a strange but necessary doctrine. Without it the doctrine of the atonement becomes perverse; what sort of god demands that the price for human sin be paid by the torture and grisly death of his son? Only if it is God himself on the cross does the atonement make sense. The doctrine of the Trinity is nowhere spelt out in Scripture. Its most obvious use as a formula occurs at the end of Matthew’s Gospel when the Apostles are told to go and make disciples of all nations and baptise people everywhere in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere in Scripture it occurs implicitly such as in today’s Gospel when Jesus uses the phrase “All that the Father has is mine” a deeply shocking phrase to those who first heard it. Also in that passage Jesus talks of the Spirit of truth who will come to guide us into all truth. 

We see then in Scripture that there are implicit references to the persons of the Trinity but the doctrine itself is not actually formulated. It was not until the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople in the 4th Century, held partly in response to heretical teaching about the Godhead that the doctrine was formally spelt out as ‘three persons in one substance’. However the words being used there have very specific meanings in Greek philosophical thought and so they are not very helpful to us. Essentially Christians then, as now, were trying to hold together their belief in one God with the fact that they experienced this one God in different ways. This led them to differentiate the persons of the Trinity by function. So you have God the Father, the heavenly parent who created the World, Universe and wider Cosmos. Then you have God the Son, who took human form in order that we might be redeemed or saved, God having the function there of the Redeemer. Finally there is God the Holy Spirit God’s continuing presence with us who guides, comforts, strengthens and sanctifies us. The functions being all those, sanctifying being a churchy way of saying: ‘makes us holy or whole’. There are two things going on there, holiness being made worthy of God, and wholeness becoming the person God wants and designs us to be. They are of course closely related. 

So you have the persons of the Trinity being defined by their function, whilst saying they are one and the same substance. It’s a bit like 3 in 1 oil which cleans, lubricates and protects, same substance but three functions. I quite like that analogy because oil is also messy and when you let God into your life he can make things run more smoothly but equally it can be quite messy as he starts to work with us and probes and loosens areas of our lives we have allowed to seize up and would prefer to have left well alone. 

However there is a problem with defining the persons of the Trinity by their function. It doesn’t talk about their relatedness their relationship with each other. Our experience of God is in loving relationship, that’s how we experience the Trinity through our relationship with God. In doing so we are being drawn into what is happening within the Godhead, three persons one substance bound together in love. It is the eternal communion of love that reaches out and draws us in and is represented most movingly by the Rublev’s icon of the three persons sharing a meal with the circle open – inviting us in. We say ‘for God so loved the world he gave his only Son’ and the Son in his turn ‘loved us so much he gave his life for us on the Cross’. The persons of the Trinity are drawing us into the relationship of love. 

St. Paul in the passage from his letter to the Romans, which we heard today, spells out the blessings enjoyed by those who like him have been justified by faith and drawn into this communion of love. Firstly, we have peace with God (verse 1), secondly, we have gained access to him, and ‘stand’ in grace (verse 2) a state of being right with God. We have all no doubt experienced that peace and sense of everything in the world is OK when our relationships say with our marriage partner is good. That same sense of intimate peace is available to us with God when we are in right relationship with him. Thirdly also in verse 2 we boast or rejoice in the hope of sharing the glory God, Paul’s way of referring to life in heaven with God. We have that hope of eternal life, which transforms our current reality and helps put some of our moans and groans in context. 

Fourthly, we rejoice in our sufferings, sufferings which come our way because we belong to him. The word ‘suffering’ is the same word Jesus uses in John 16:33 for ‘persecution’. So Paul is referring to the tribulation of opposition and persecution that come because of our faith rather than the trials of life which come to us all. Christians in this Country are not used to suffering for their faith, which is one reason why the Churches are in the words of the Book of Revelation ‘lukewarm’ but I have a feeling that in coming years that may change. Secularism is becoming ever more strident and aggressive but it may paradoxically be the spark which re-ignites the Church. Paul says these sufferings produce endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope, and this brings us to the fifth blessing – a hope which does not disappoint us. The sixth blessing is the love that is poured into our hearts. So the blessings we experience from being drawn into the communion of God, being in a right relationship with God (what Paul calls being justified by faith) are love, joy, peace, faith and hope as well as perseverance and character developed by suffering. 

I’ll finish by turning to Galatians Ch. 5:22-23 where we read “What the Spirit brings is….love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, goodness and self control.” So we see by being drawn into the Godhead, the communion of love, we receive the gifts or blessings of the Spirit, gifts which then become manifest in our lives as fruits we can offer to others. In so doing we are helping to build God’s Kingdom by drawing others into the communion of love. There is a beautiful simplicity about it all perhaps best summarised by the command ‘love one another just as God has loved you’. Amen.