June 21st 2015

I offer this weeks sermon.!!

I know I am pretty awful at keeping up to date here... my apologies

The face of tyranny surrounds us probably on a daily basis.

We do not have to listen to the TV for very long before we see its face in some guise.

The plight of people crammed into small un-seaworthy boats escaping from what was and is supposed to be their home.

The Young men and women traveling to Syria and becoming suicide bombers, and the children that are unwittingly caught up in this.

Children and adults abused in a society which otherwise prides itself on decency and safety.

Men women and children experiencing daily privation and suffering and apparently sidelined by others who are better off.

Tyranny can indeed take on many forms, and somewhere you and I might have felt we have even experienced some shape or form of it ourselves.

We pray Almighty God you have  broken the tyranny of sin… and yet we still witness it and feel it.

What as Christians can we do or say about this… certainly to be real in our  world it is not sufficient to say or speak platitudes which bring comfort and hope to nobody.

I work alongside people suffering from poor mental health. This can be more symptomatic at some times than at other times. It can be difficult to experience, it can feel very frightening too. (on many levels). Many people who I look after feel that as well as bearing their poor health they have to bear to tyranny of being misunderstood, and of being side-lined in society, or even in their own families.

The tyranny of sin is that which seeks to keep people, whoever they are or whatever they suffer from the Grace and love of God. There are many ways of expressing or showing that somebody may not be so loved by God as someone else, and sadly the church has in the past been a perpetrator of this “measuring out of God’s grace”

When Jesus set out with his disciples across the Sea of Galilee in a small boat, possibly of a similar size that Shetland Fishermen set out with on the seas around these islands, they did not realise that they were going to experience the tyranny of bad weather and heavy seas. They literally described their experience as if they were perishing or about to at least.

The storm they faced was more than they could cope with. Fear and terror would have been very present.

Jesus we are told calmed the storm and the sense of Peace was as equally as tangible as the storm had been previously.

We can  witness the sense of peace brought about by people who reach out in love I tyrannical situations of all types. Aid workers risking their own health and well being are clear examples of this. Yet on a more daily basis I see the difference a positive response can bring to those suffering in a particular moment from poor mental health.

No matter who we are as Christians we really do have the power to bring an end to the tyranny of Sin.

We are Jesus hands and voice today, our actions are as if they were his actions. Our world can be a better place because we are in it.

We can bring peace and calm to storm tossed lives. We can be the difference for many between life and death.

May we have the grace to dedicate our freedom to love in the service of God and of each other.

May our hearts and bodies be directed and sanctified by God grace making its home and flowing in us.

Easter live on!

Easter 4 2015

Sermon Lerwick

Jesus chose things to illustrate his teaching from the local area and from things that the people would have readily understood. Vines and wine production. The Temple, Lights, water, bread wheat flower and yeast… as well as sheep and shepherds.

Today we have heard one of his allusions to Sheep and Shepherding and it is an image quite familiar to us let’s be honest. We have it in one of our windows even.

We probably cannot hear or say the 23^rd Psalm without thinking of Jesus being the Shepherd and the image of the Lost sheep in Jesus arms is very popular too.

Any time now in fact the lambs will be appearing on the crofts round about, and you can be sure that all sorts of folk will be taking pictures of the fluffy cute new born lambs. Watching them frolic and play can be a delight, and hearing their cries for mother are often heart rending.

But I think most of us realize that Sheep are not cute all the time, and the fluffy lambs soon grow up and become bedraggled sheep.

When Jesus used Sheep and Shepherds as an illustration in his teaching about himself and God, the people knew exactly what he was talking about. Their picture would have been quite real.

Whereas our image has been skewed by Victorian artists and poets who had a very romantic view of life in the fields and on the hills, the people of Jesus Day would not have been so easily fooled.

Another remarkable point is that Shepherds were outcast people by and large. Their occupation put them literally on the edge of society… this was what makes so remarkable the shepherds at Christmas.

They were unclean both religiously ad often literally. Their job meant exclusion from religious celebration.

And Jesus says today “I am a Shepherd!” (albeit a Good one)

So I invite us to ponder a slightly different image than our brains perhaps have worked with before.

Jesus as an outcast, one who we would not invite into our home or place of worship, caring for ugly dirty sheep on the edge of the community. Jesus himself being roughly dressed and sleeping rough on the hillside, doing his job really well yes but outcast and kept at a suitable distance from the Temple…. Incidentally a place that strangely relied on Shepherds for the sacrifices offered there.

Jesus said I am the good shepherd… I know my sheep and they know me.

Actually Jesus is not giving his hearers a comfortable image at all. Not only is he suggesting that he is the shepherd but that he looks after Sheep…. And that is us! (of course)

If we are sheep and he is shepherd lets us not over romanticise our own position either…. The lost sheep is not beautiful as we have heard before.. it is the one always escaping, the one with buck teeth, the one bedraggled and wet, and often the noisiest too!!

Throughout the Old Testament God is frequently described as a Shepherd to his wayward people, constantly calling them and always willing to be seen alongside them.

Jesus comes to us and promises that we also will never be left as lost or orphaned sheep or children.

In him we have life and life in all its fullness, we need not be shy about living this life and of knowing that God is calling us and is alongside us.

This is a picture of The chapel that served the fisher folk by the Episcopal church before St Magnus Church was built

What suffering is Good?

A sermon for second Sunday in Lent.

I found it really interesting working away on this one

This week I have found it moving to consider what it may mean to take up our cross and to follow Jesus, something which we may be encouraged to contemplate during Lent. We have the injunction in today’s gospel from Mark. It goes on to say that if we want to save our life we must first loose it.

This is hard for us to do because we seem biologically programmed to survive, and we interpret that as saving ourselves.

Let us consider then for a moment something quite interesting, and that is that the universe was born in perfect temperature, perfect balance and symmetry at the time of the Big Bang, and that it was only as things settled and cooled down afterwards that the possibility of life began to emerge and of course that also means human existence. It was the asymmetry and “out of balance ness  that made our life possible. Put simply, we live because of disorder and imperfection.

Apparently according to modern physics the universe has learnt to use the “negative” and the “imperfect” to make something good and larger.

The same can be argued for our own humanity and our own life of faith too… we acknowledge our imperfection and it is by God’s grace used to make us larger and better.

Biblical images of Refiners fire, and fullers soap, come to my mind, the sifting of the wheat and the gold passing through the assayers fire.

We mature in faith and grow in holiness, by precisely accepting the cross and not avoiding it. We grow with God when we suffer and find our redemption in it. We become changed from Glory to Glory by choosing what the world today counts as negative.

Not an easy ask!

Being honest about who we know we are, with the negative too, is what brings us to God’s kingdom. The way of the world suggests otherwise, it is more likely to imply striving for perfection, and climbing a ladder, and winning… reaching the goal so to speak.

Jesus implies the opposite, to loose oneself in order to gain it. And this is precisely what we believe he did too, as he died and was raised.

Should we think that for some reason Christ’s way is not one that we should also follow?

Mark has also made me notice something else interesting and thought provoking. When he says that we should take up our cross he uses exactly the same verb in the Greek as he uses earlier in the gospel   when we hear Jesus saying to the paralytic man “take up your bed and walk”.

For the paralytic the “illness” which somehow had defined the person, was precisely what was holding him back from being who God wanted him to be. Or from what God had created him to be.

His suffering was not life giving. That sort of suffering was diminishing him.

The paralytic had literally become bed bound and was going nowhere. Jesus speaks to him and simply invites him to take up his bed and walk.

What we may think defines us and keeps us back is what Jesus says we must walk away from. Stop being the victim now and begin to live again. Don’t let yourself be defined by your negativity.. your illness.. your imperfection.. but take up your bed and walk away from it.

So in today’s gospel he says to us to Take up our cross and follow. The same word is again used when Simon of Cyrene takes up Jesus Cross.

The cross though seen by the world as something which leads to destruction leads us to God himself.

Taking up the cross is “raising us up”, is to elevate us. It is weighing the anchor to sail away, it is loosing us from what binds us, it frees us.

The Bed and the cross are actually connected.

The suffering associated with both are quite different.

One, holds us back though it may be seen as giving us our character and defines who we are, the Other is precisely what we avoid picking up because in the worlds eyes it leads to death and destruction, but for us to carry it, it makes us who we are before God. (and brings us life).

It may make us think again about what we are saying when we say “we all have our crosses to bear”.

St Francis said “ we must bear patiently not being good … and not being thought good”

Jesus says blessed are the poor in Spirit for the kingdom of God is theirs…. Take up your cross and follow me”

Baptism of Christ

Sermon for  St Magnus on Sunday 11th January.... after heavy winds!!

A wind from God was seen sweeping across the waters…… We all know what that feels like! Plenty of ships had taken shelter I noticed on Thursday and Friday… the wind has been fierce.

Genesis opens the scene with this wind from God… the mighty drum roll for the creative drama to unfold.

Mark begins his drama with a similar dramatic opening…. We certainly get the impression in both accounts that something great and something of God is unfolding quickly before us.

By verse 5 in Genesis we have day one completed, and by verse 9 in Mark Jesus the Son of God has been revealed.

For Mark the Baptism of Jesus is the great Epiphany of God. Last week we had the Epiphany of Matthew with wise men from the East recognising the movement of God, and before that of course we had Luke’s Epiphany moment when the focus was on the inn in Bethlehem and the stable round the back.

In all these Epiphanies God has been seen revealing himself and inviting us to in turn recognise that in Christ God was at work redeeming the world.

For Mark John the Baptist is Elijah. (He even dresses identically to him and this is clearly pointed out) and just as Elijah called on the people of Israel to repent and be part of the Kingdom in the second book of Kings, so John calls the people to repent and be part of the Kingdom. Baptism in water was common place among Jews in recommitting themselves to God and it was also the sign for Gentiles entering into Judaism.

Jesus is seen aligning himself alongside humanity and being baptised too. In this act Jesus is recognised alongside and in solidarity with all of us.

The Baptism of Christ was an important moment for Mark, who as we know was not at all interested in birth narratives. The Baptism fulfils the same function as Luke’s Shepherds and Matthew Wise men.

Some of you may have seen the TV series “who do you think you are?” where a celebrity delves into their family history The Baptism of Christ was Marks way of proving that God was in Christ…. His story starts here The kingdom of God is revealed and the chosen son of God is made manifest.

It is interesting that at the baptism a voice is heard by Jesus (we are not told others heard it at that time) that He is God’s son and God is pleased by this, and at the end of the Gospel the centurion at the cross is publicly heard to proclaim “truly this was God’s son”. What a wonderful way of tying the beginning of the drama as it unfolds to the end.

Furthermore at the Baptism the heavens were torn apart and the next time they get torn apart for Mark is at the crucifixion as Jesus gasps his last breath and as they tear aprt then the curtain of the temple was also seen being torn from top to bottom, thus signifying the way to God fully accessible and obtainable.

Part of the trouble for us is that we have become so familiar with the stories and we also only get snatches of them. The complete drama often remains hidden or overlooked by us.

Marks gospel is too often seen as the more downplayed story because it seems to ignore the birth and it has a rather stunted and bad end. But if we can see it for what it is hopefully we can see it as just as dramatic as any other.

Here is the Good news of God….

Read all about it …..read all about it!  This story is going to change how you think about God and even how you think about yourself.

The Christians in Ephesus recognised this when they experienced the wind from God blowing amongst them too….. another Pentecost story if ever we needed one… there were even about twelve of them again.

So to bring things to a conclusion.

The wind from God seen creating in Day one Gods creation was in tune with God and aligned alongside him, it was a wonderful exchange. This creative power of God is seen time and time again calling his people back to him in various ways, and in the life of Jesus we see it all over again as a new creation is revealed and a new possibility made clear for us Gods people.

The Holy Spirit is still felt blowing among us constantly revealing the works of the Kingdom to us.

O Come let us adore him… truly this man was God’s Son.

A wonderful time

Last Thursday we celebrated my mum and dad's diamond wedding anniversary. It was truly a diamond moment.
Hannah and Tristan came up. Simon came up. My mum dad and brother martin came up. The day itself saw us opening lots of cards, including one from Elizabeth the second! We celebrated with supper at the Lerwick Hotel and we had a lovely meal.

One for the memory banks for sure

Forgiveness

How often should I forgive?

As we come closer to the “unpacking forgiveness” seminar in Sound hall I have naturally been giving the topic a great deal of thought, so it feels daunting to have such a central subject to our belief and faith set before me today.

Forgiveness is huge in every sense of the word, it is as complex as it is essential. We do not have an option it seems to me and yet we have to keep on going for it over and over again, and today Jesus recognises the process may never reach the conclusion.

Forgiveness is central to Gods relationship to human kind. “It is the divine correlative of human sin” (Dictionary)This is clear from the opening verses of the Old Testament where the relationship between us is mapped out, and even the final verses of out New testament emphasise the importance of this binding relationship.

Because the relationship we have to God is bound up with forgiveness the process of forgiveness is at the very heart of what we are as humans. This is so clearly seen in the heart of what we call the Lord’s Prayer… Forgives us as we forgive.

 As Christians we cannot duck the issue, no matter how painful the issue might become. Sure… I would often want to move away from it, dance around the edges sometimes but each time I know there is no real ducking.

I have been reading “The book of forgiveness” by Desmond and Mpho Tutu. I warmly commend this to you all. He describes forgiveness as a fourfold path ( a cycle of forgiveness in fact), which is helpful as it maps out a process and journey over which we travel as forgiveness unfolds. And as the word suggests the cycle may often repeat as the journey goes on.

Here I read the curious phrase “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past”

It is a phrase which needs thought and anguish.

The flipside of the path of forgiveness is simply scary. We either choose one path or the other… but the scary part is the  other cycle is the cycle of revenge.

Somehow we trick ourselves into thinking that by following this route we can change what has been done.  We cannot.!

Desmond Tutu, among many others, emphasise that Forgiveness is not about forgetting. Indeed the cycle of forgiveness demands that the story be told, and heard.

The path of forgives is tough and bumpy and it involves facing many things we try to avoid, anger bitterness, resentment, revenge, hurt, pain and loss.

We pray to God to forgive us as we also forgive and we ask how many times should we do this. I did once hear a member of one of my congregations talking to another member and they were struggling with a sense of injustice that had been done to them… the trouble was it was not the first time.. she knew the issue was not easy, she knew the other person quite well, and with natural desperation I heard her say “but there is a limit….”

A phrase which even if we do not say we certainly feel.

Peter felt there was a limit and he was willing to go all the way… as many as seven times? Once again Peter is put in his place!

One thing for certain is that there is nothing magical about forgiveness. It is healing, it is wholeness, it is healthy, it is goodness… but it is not magic. It is not instant or easy, it is not quick and certainly not cheap.

We all need it from God and others, but boy it is difficult to work it, to play our own part in it.

Forgive us God,,, as we forgive others!

Sometimes the words stick I my throat I do not know about you?

Matthew paints his usual horrible scenario for the one who fails to forgive.

No matter what happened Reeva Steemkamp was killed by Oscar Pistorius. It has been a long a convoluted case. June Steemkamp said a number of weeks ago that she had forgiven Oscar for doing this.

She did not say, it didn’t matter, she did not say it did not hurt, she did not say I want Oscar to be set free from jail, or for the trial to find him Not Guilty of anything. She did not say I do not want justice to be done.

She did say that she could not live herself without forgiveness, and that she did not want to be trapped in the past, which could not be undone. She did recognise that for her own life forgiveness was the only way forward.

What an example to us who think on these things.

Forgive us Lord, as we forgive….. give us the strength and courage to walk the path of forgiveness even if I have the ground seventy times seven times.