Sermon for St Edyth's

Sermon for St Edyth’s Church, Sea Mills, Bristol

Sunday 13^th February, 6.30pm

Readings: Psalm 13, Ephesians 5:1-7, Mark 1:40-end

Jesus said: “I am willing. Be clean!” +

Zimbabwe is a place where poverty dominates those who live there. Between 1990 and 2003, the poverty level rose from just 25% to over 80%. The country has one of the highest levels of HIV/AIDS in the world, and now one of the worst water and sanitation systems in Africa. The education system was one of the best in Africa, now it struggles to be recognised at all.

Amidst the poverty and pain of all the things happening in that country lies a people group who remain forgotten: those with leprosy. In 2009, I visited a leprosy mission in the country and had my comfortable ideals of the Gospel shaken and challenged. I guess you could say I feared leprosy because I knew very little about it, it was unknown to me and I knew that it is pretty much incurable. The Jews feared lepers because of the strict laws of cleanliness given in Leviticus about skin conditions. A number of times in the bible we see lepers standing at a distance. This really played on my mind during my visit to the camp.

As we drove up to the mission, I noticed just how far away from everything the lepers lived. Behind mountains, behind trees and tucked away behind metal fencing. The Jews of Jesus day saw those with leprosy as unclean, dirty, unholy and even possessed, and in 2009, in Zimbabwe, not much had changed. I was fearful as we entered the camp. I could see little huts, the size of garden sheds, coated in black from the smoke of the fires outside. We went in to one of the huts and, huddled in the corner, quite happy, was a little man. He actually looked quite “normal”. He struggled to his feet, grabbed two crutches and walked over to us. It was then I saw that leprosy had been eating away at his face – his nose, ears and mouth. I reached to shake his hand and realised he had no hands. Feeling like a fool I took a deep breath and prayed: ‘Lord, just show me how to love this man’. God answered: ‘Greet him how I love you’. So, I flung my arms around him, knocking down one of his crutches. I don’t think he was best pleased! I’d never met anyone with leprosy before. That day, I met over 50 lepers. I ate with them. I entered their houses. I even helped change the bandages of a leper’s wound. I guess it was a privilege.

Actually, we are not sure if the man in Mark 1:40 was a leper, because the Greek word means a broad range of skin diseases and problems. Also he was alone, and usually the lepers, as they are today, were banished to groups, beyond the camp or away from the streets. What we do know is that the Leviticus law in chapters 13 and 14 instructed that if people came near a group of lepers, the lepers were to shout ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ so no one approached. It was therefore an isolated life. Lepers were not permitted to travel on the roadway, nor could they have any social contact with "clean" people. Luke 17 has the account of Jesus healing the ten lepers. The ten were in a group together, and as they saw Jesus from a distance, they shouted over to him, have mercy on us, probably too, ‘unclean, unclean!’ We also know that only priests could declare someone unholy or unclean. They could also declare them clean again however. This is why Jesus tells the diseased man in Mark’s story to go and show himself to the priest, so he can declare him clean again. The priest would offer a sacrifice of a bird in an earthenware vessel under running water. The priest’s ceremony and actions are important in helping us understand what Jesus was trying to achieve. This ceremony made those who once had leprosy clean again. The word ‘running’ is from a Hebrew word meaning ‘living’, so we have living water. The Jewish people believed that the living water from a priest in this holy sacrifice was the only way to be classed as ‘clean’ again. In John 7, Jesus claims to be that living water: ‘whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ Jesus claimed that he could cleanse and heal those people in the world who lived in uncleanness and death in the same way that the living water from a priest in the temple could. In Jesus’ time, leprosy literally separated you from God – you were unclean, you could not worship.

While I was at the leprosy mission in Zimbabwe, a man with the disease told me via an interpreter: Carl, millions of people around the world are suffering from leprosy, not of the skin, but in their hearts. He was right. Who are the people in this city who Jesus wants us to touch? How often is it that we exclude or condemn others just because they are different to us, because they don’t like the things we do, they think differently to us or don’t quite look the same as us. The man went on to tell me that he knew exactly what it meant to be excluded and pushed aside, but he was so thankful that Jesus still wanted to love him. I also heard of miraculous stories of lepers being healed in that camp.

In Mark 1, Jesus is making a very clear point! To heal this man, Jesus didn’t have to touch him at all. We know elsewhere in the gospel that a simple brush past Jesus’ cloak would have done, somewhere else that Jesus just says the words from a distance and they’re healed! To understand this story we have to look at it from a Jewish perspective. Those who touched this man would also be unclean and unholy. Jesus reaches out and touches him. It was just a few months ago we reminded ourselves of the incarnation of God on earth – Jesus, a baby, so pure and perfectly holy. Now we hear about him reaching out to touch the most despised and neglected people in that society. The Jews thought this was shocking, repulsive, that the clean should touch the dirty. But, Jesus gives this man a fresh chance to worship God. Jesus ministry was shocking and it should be today. People are crying out, as our psalm said tonight: ‘How long O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?’ In the midst of that cry should be us, the Church. We should be where people are excluded and isolated.

What I think is most remarkable about this story is the request of the leper. It’s not ‘heal me, I’m ill’ or it’s not even ‘if you are willing, you can heal me.’ It’s something much more profound: ‘if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ The man knew that his disease meant he couldn’t worship God; that his leprosy was more than just a physical thing – it was something spiritual. In others words, this man is saying ‘I want to worship God! I want to be able to touch others again! I want to be part of God’s people.’ The Gospel of Christ was speaking to this man in exactly the same way it continues to call and speak to us today; that Christ can declare us clean and holy because he has provided all that is necessary to cleanse us. In the same way that this man had marks of leprosy on his body, we too are scarred with sin. Jesus can declare ‘be cleansed.’ ‘I am willing, be clean’, says Jesus, ‘and immediately the leprosy left the man and he was cured.’ The man was able to go away and be touched by others! In the temple he would have had a large and long ceremony to be made clean and whole again. Complete healings like this had not been seen for a long time amongst the Jews. The last recorded incident of a Jew being healed from leprosy was Moses’ sister, Miriam.

It’s funny that this man’s response is to disobey Jesus and tell people who Jesus said not to! I guess, painfully, this man is more like us than we imagined. How many times have we been healed or cleansed or forgiven and then gone and ignored God’s commands? Jesus, on the cross, heals us from what was thought to be an incurable disease – sin. For that to happen, Jesus had to leave his splendour and glory and enter into our world. God goes out of his way to touch those who were deemed ‘unclean.’ That’s us. He calls and invites us to come before him so that he can make us whole.

The Church is to be ready and spotless for the return of Christ, without blemish and blameless before God. That means our leprosy has to go. The only way that that can go is if we fall before Christ in complete faith, and surrender our lives to him. That also means leaping to tell others about what he has done, and what he can do. Those outside the Church see us with leprosy – our fighting and divisions, the way we hurt one another and proclaim it in the name of God. They remember our past – our wars, crusades and battles. Wouldn’t it be nice if they saw us going from here, healed, maybe with scars, but with scars that are healing. Healing because here we encounter a healing and loving God who wants to bring all people into his presence.

You may be thinking this is great! I want us, as the Church, to get rid of our leprosy, our sin, the things that hold us back from God. You may be thinking that there are things in your life that really need attention, that you don’t feel quite whole, that sometimes the whole world is caving in on you. But how do we get there? Well our reading from Ephesians chapter 5 tells us the answer.

We are to imitate God, who is made known to us perfectly in Jesus. That means to live in love, even if it leads us to dark places – like leprosy missions, prisons, working with prostitutes and other groups who are pushed aside and seen as unclean in our society today. Love and total surrender of his life led one man called John Bradburn to found the leprosy mission I visited. They now regard him as a local saint. An imitator of God, clearly marked as one of God’s dearly loved children. This calling is not above us and we too are called to be saints. Love like the Father has loved us. Forgive like the Father has forgiven us: “live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” Jesus’ love for us, for the leper, for the poor and the unclean, led him to death. But, his love for us also led to resurrection – a chance to shatter our sin and our filthiness, so that we, like the leper, can learn to love God again.

Tonight we gather around the Lord’s Table to celebrate the Eucharist. In which, we are reminded of the love that Christ has shown to us, that he is here, now. Whatever leprosy we have, the Eucharist reminds us that Christ’s love is a love without limits and a love that cleanses. Communion also reminds us that deep down we actually know that Christ is willing to cleanse us. So, as we go to receive communion, I wonder how many of us can say ‘Lord, if you are willing, make me clean’? We need to leave this building tonight, nourished by the body and blood of Christ and knowing that Jesus is whispering to us ‘I am willing, be clean’.

Let us pray,

Father, thank you for being here now, for making your love known to us this evening. Keep us mindful that we cannot save ourselves, that we need your healing and love. Amen.

Today's Sermon

St Mary’s, Handsworth

Sunday 11^th July 2010

Deut. 30:10-14, Psalm 68, Colossians 1:15-20

Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

Sing:

Would you walk by on the other side
When someone called for aid?
Would you walk by on the other side
and would you be afraid?

Cross over the road my friend
ask the Lord His strength to lend
His compassion has no end
Cross over the road

That song, written for and sung in primary schools, couldn’t summarize the parable of the Good Samaritan any better… I’ll explain why in a bit.

First, I can’t help but get excited whenever I read the Gospel of Luke. I love his writings. His Gospel, more than any other, gets across this idea that Christ – God – was one of us. Luke’s Gospel not only portrays Jesus the man, but in a humble way, Jesus as the divine and loving God. Luke himself wasn’t a Jew, so he knew the things that people wanted to hear about Jesus. Luke’s Gospel is the only Gospel that contains the parable of the Good Samaritan.

As we heard a few weeks ago when I preached on welcoming people who are on the edges of society into our church family, there is not one single person that God wouldn’t welcome into His arms. Luke wants to make this totally clear. God creates no boundaries between people and neither should we. Love looks beyond boundaries.

So this famous parable –the story of the Good Samaritan – read in our church two thousand years or so after Jesus told it. Nothing much has changed in some sense. We still live in a world of fear. In a world where we can’t be seen with the poor, those lower than us, or where helping someone in need is seen as an embarrassment or hassle.

How many of us have walked past the man selling the Big Issue. All he wants is for us to buy a magazine for a couple of pounds. Oh but no! We’re in a hurry, we don’t have the change! Or do we walk by because we fear that we might say hello to him. We might ask his name or where he’s been sleeping. We might feel guilty, that in one of the richest countries in the world, we are approached by beggars. Or is it we are embarrassed to be seen with him while everyone else looks on?

I was upset on Thursday when I received an email from Zimbabwe saying that a couple I know, who are extremely poor, were struggling to pay school fees and medical expenses after the wife needed dialysis. By Thursday I also knew what the Gospel for today was. I had the email one open one side and the Bible open next to it. I instantly gave my excuses – I only get £30 a week… I need my money for this and that… I forwarded the email to Fr Nicolas to see if he could help. Thankfully I think we can pay a little to help them out.

I wonder what excuses the priest wondering by on the other side of the road had as he looked at the stranger beaten and bloodied. And the Levite who also ignored the man. They were probably similar to mine. Probably similar to yours. We know we should help someone, but we just can’t pluck up the courage.

Of course we feel like the priest and the Levite. Jesus was shaming us by using these characters to tell His story. Good, moral and upright people walking on by. We can’t do it on our own. Therefore, I’m not pointing a finger at anyone, including myself for having walked on by in the past. We cannot love strangers on our own account, we need to experience Jesus’ love first. We cannot approach someone who looks different to us, we cannot go into places that are uncomfortable, even if someone needs help –it’s natural. We need God. The short hymn I sang at the beginning sums up what Jesus was trying to tell the crowd. It pin points exactly where we go wrong. It says, ask the Lord His strength to lend. His compassion has no end – yours does, which is why you need my love. If you noticed, before Jesus told this story, He first gave the answer – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. (Luke 10:27)

We are weak, we all fall and we all fail. But that doesn’t mean that we escape God’s love. His love lifts us up in order to be able to lift up others. It brings us out of the gutter so we can deliver people fro their gutter. His love restores our frail body into something glorious and special so that everyone else knows they are also loved. His love transforms our sin into laughter and dancing so that sinners and outcasts know that they can be set free. His love frees us from ourselves so that Satan cannot take grip of our lives.

He has given us the power and strength to approach the stranger on the roadside, whoever that may be. You don’t have to be the wisest, most priest-like, rule knowing, or richest person in the world to stop. You just have to be someone who loves God.

I can only end by reading the psalm we heard… this is my prayer to you, my prayer for your favour. In your great love, answer me, O God, with your help that never fails. Lord, answer, for your love is kind; in your compassion, turn towards me.

Amen.

Moving on.... again!

Hello people!

My Sheffield placement is coming to a close - with only a month or so left to complete. It is coming to a natural close too, which is great!

I'm getting used to moving on and moving about... From Suffolk to Mirfield, from Mirfield to parts of Africa and Zimbabwe, from there to Sheffield!

So much has happened here in Sheffield too and I've learnt so much. I've preached at Weddings, Funerals and Baptisms, led services, preached on Sunday, visited the sick, the dying and the joyful and living! Met so many interesting people - so many hurt people - so many joyful people. I have come a long way from inward looking Carl two or three years ago to a rather noisy and confident Carlyboy! (I hope that's good!) I've learnt one thing above all - that God loves me! This might sound an obvious and strange thing to say I've learnt, but I've also learnt that the biggest sin and biggest killer in our society is not being able to be the way God has made us - not being true to ourselves. In my previous blog 'Welcoming Arms' I explain that a little...

So, another move... to Bristol this time... to begin a three year course in Theology and training for the priesthood. I go in at a time when the Church of England is struggling and in need of peace... but it is at this time when we are learning who we are, what the church is really about and what we are called to be.

What are we called to be? Confident hypocrites... rejoicing sinners... confident and sure of God's love not just for us, but for all people...

Welcoming Arms

St Mary’s, Handsworth

Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1, Psalm 62, Galatians 3:26-29 Gospel: Luke 9: 18-24

For anyone who wants to save His life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. (Luke 9:24)

Last week, we heard that fantastic Gospel Reading of the sinful women who anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair. The owner of the house, Simon, who guest Jesus was didn’t even welcome Him.

Jesus has the ability to literally turn everything on its head. He mixed with people who no body else wanted to mix with. He touched people that others cast aside. He condemned self-centredness and created a family of love and truth. He made the poor rich and sent the rich away longing for more! He was seen with prostitutes and tax collectors- the despised. Wow!

While I was in Africa, I had the amazing chance to visit a leprosy camp. It was set up for lepers to be able to live freely and easily according to their condition. Some of the people there had no ears, or noses, or hands, or feet. When I stepped into one of the little huts I saw this, quite honestly, awful looking man. I wondered how I should greet him. As I went to shake his hand, I realised that he didn’t have one. I felt a fool. But, in my foolishness I just thought, how would Jesus greet this man. So, I flung open my arms and hugged him, nearly knocking hi off his crutches. Poor bloke! I’d never met a man with leprosy before. That day I met about 50 lepers. Wow!

In Suffolk, a few years back over the Christmas period, five prostitutes were murdered. It was a scary time for everyone in Suffolk. I knew a mother of one of the girls who was killed from a local church. She stood up to speak to a Churches Together prayer meeting, obviously distressed and tearful. But she said, the only way I can cope with my loss, is to think of Jesus. He touched a prostitute and blessed her. Then, on the cross He forgave us all. We are already learning from Jesus how to forgive this murderer. Wow!

A friend back at home was on the verge of killing himself because he was gay. He loved God and called himself a Christian. You could tell he loved God! He had met some Christians who had plainly said that he was a sinner and that he wasn’t welcome at their church. They also said ‘God doesn’t love you.’ To my ears, this statement is a sin itself! It was at an evening service he attended that the preacher recognised his pain and hurt and stopped his sermon and said ‘God loves you. He wants you to know.’ At that, the preacher sat down. Wow!

This is the God I know. A God who is proud to be identified with the poor and those in need, those who have problems and those who admit they are sinners. A God who still cares for people even when they turn their backs on Him. A God who, no matter what we’ve done, always welcomes us back. These are the places Jesus went.

So, what does any of this have to do with today’s Gospel? Carrying your cross, denying yourself, loosing your life to follow Christ? Well it is everything to do with it! When we decide to become Christian we actually choose to carry the cross of Jesus with Him. We give up the me, me, me about us and we follow Christ. By sharing that cross with Him, by loosing ourselves and by becoming Christ-like, we follow Christ into the places where no one else wants to go. To be seen, privately or publicly with prostitutes, gay people, Asians, Muslims and other religions even! Not just to be seen with them, but to be loving them.

Knowing Christ means knowing yourself. He offers to complete our lives in every way. He wants to know us, even though He knows us better than we know ourselves. The more we tell Him about ourselves, including our failures and flaws which we often miss out, the more He can tell us about Himself. And that is the amazing part! We think we know God, but just as we tell Him about ourselves once more, we find that we hardly know Him at all. O the length, the depth and the height of God! The most refreshing thing I have done lately was go to confession at Walsingham. Sometimes after confessing our sins it’s nice to hear a voice declare the promise of Jesus – child, go, your sins are forgiven.

Once we know ourselves, and once we tell Christ about ourselves, we can then lose ourselves. Literally, we can lose ourselves by being lost in Christ. Then it doesn’t matter where He leads us, we rest in the knowledge that we are with Jesus, carrying the cross. Carrying that cross with Jesus means we follow Him into the gutters of society. Daring to be seen with those who are simply not understood, those who don’t feel they are loved and those who have no time for God, until they realise that God has time for them.

It’s really hard to welcome people who have drink and drug problems, people who can be disruptive. Can we ask ourselves what we would do if a gay couple, or a prostitute came into our congregation? Could we cope with people with mental problems? I think we know that Jesus would welcome them. Maybe we need to ask Jesus to help us understand how we can make St Mary’s the kind of church that can live as Jesus did? St Mary’s is a loving church. You’ve all been very loving to me! But love always needs to grow. And when God asks us to make our love grow it can seem we are losing control on our life; but in fact we discover a whole new kind of life. Amen.

My Peace I give to you, My Peace I leave with you

St Mary’s Church, Handsworth

Acts 15: 1-2. 22-29, Psalm 66, Apocalypse 21: 10-23

Gospel: John 14: 23-29

“My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you”

Peace is something that our world needs. We need peace in Iraq and Afghanistan. Greece needs peace at this time. Zimbabwe, China, Haiti and Chile all need peace. After last week’s elections, I think we all need some peace too. Our MPs all promise to bring peace to our streets and within the wider world. We all want an end to war and strife. We all want some quiet space and time. We understand peace however, differently to how Jesus intended.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples the very thing they feared. ‘I am going away.’ These things are said on the night that he was betrayed, at the Last Supper. We know the disciples’ reaction was one of disbelief and shock, almost as if they never heard Jesus say that He would be back and that He would send the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. Jesus promised them not only the Holy Spirit, but also peace. ‘My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.’ You can imagine the disciples gut feeling when the very person that asked them to give up their livelihoods said He was about to leave and all He was offering was peace!

It is as though Jesus begins to tell His disciples off. He says ‘If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going.’ In other words, if you truly trusted me you would know that I keep all my promises, why are you so afraid then? I’ve done all this and yet you still don’t quite believe me.

He knew that this would be their reaction. He knew that His disciples would forget what He had already told them. He also knew that the disciples would badly accept His death. This is why He offered His peace to them; to console them, to give them hope so that their hearts would not be heavy or troubled. The offer of Christ’s peace to them was an offer for them to begin fully trusting in Him. It wasn’t an offer of peace for silence or tranquillity, or the opportunity to change the events leading to His death. It was an invitation to be fully satisfied in His promise that He would return again.

It’s hard to understand a peace that doesn’t give a tranquillity, or isn’t the absence of war, or of strife, or the end of all our troubles. Although this is a form of peace, this is not the sort of peace Jesus is offering here. When Jesus met Thomas after His resurrection, what was one of the first things that Jesus said to Thomas and the other disciples in their fear and doubt? “Peace be with you” (John 20:26) a reminder, again, that that promise made on Maundy Thursday, at the Last Supper, had been fulfilled.

So Christ’s peace comes to us in all of life’s situations, challenges and trials. His peace is an assurance that He will be with us no matter what – that may sound too easy, too simple, and in reality it is simple. However, it means saying that God is with us in the face of cancer, in the face of sickness and health problems, in the face of divorce and family splits, in the face of violence and war, poverty and loneliness. The remarkable stories of the Haiti earthquake survivors trapped under the rubble, one man for an unbelievable 15 days, pulled out declaring that God was laying there with Him and he felt nothing but peace. In Africa, at one stage, I felt so poor having no money and having to share what little food our home had. For the first time, I felt God’s peace, just for a day or so. That waking up not knowing where our food would come from was actually only worth waking up because Jesus was there. The peace that God offers means saying that He is with us, just because Christ has promised that He is. That’s hard. And I believe that this is why St Paul speaks so much about endurance, perseverance and patience. Christ’s peace is about wholeness and our oneness with Him. It’s not just about ending wars and conflict, but His peace is a challenge to confront the things that cause those conflicts – racism, hate, fear, injustice and intolerance. His mission on earth wasn’t to remove the pain we face on earth and in our lives, but to offer His peace to those who are broken. He never promised that life would be easy and without challenge or trial, but rather, quite simply, His love can see us through. His peace comes to us in our confidence that He is there with us. It may simple, but we are only human, and the hard reality is for us to always believe that and remember that promise. The Cross is the reality of that living promise. It is a mark in history declaring that God is always with His people.

The world is in turmoil and there is a storm over us. To live in Christ’s peace is to accept the challenge of Christian life amidst that storm. Peace is found by living in Him, keeping His word, and taking a leap to walk in faith. His peace can heal and mend a broken world and it lasts forever – our world needs it, this community needs it and we need it too. Peace is the satisfaction of trusting fully in God alone. Do you accept His invitation of His offer of peace? Deciding that no matter what we go through, God is with us. That is Christ’s peace, Christ’s seal over us. This is truly something the world cannot give us, but something we so desperately need. Amen.

St George's Day

St George’s Day

To God, to our Monarch and to St George! Is what we used to chant at Sunday School.

St George was a Roman soldier. He was probably quite a high ranking soldier, or just extremely brave. St George objected to the killing and persecution of thousands of Christians by the Romans, and as a result, he himself was killed for his belief in God. He was a martyr and that’s why there is a red cross on the English flag, representing blood.

No one really knows where the story of the dragon comes from. Some say the dragon is the symbol of death or of Satan, and St George stood up for his faith by fighting evil. Or maybe the dragon is just a story, to tell people just how brave and bold St George really was. In fact, no one is really certain whether or not St George himself came to England. It was the Normans during the time of the crusades who saw St George in a vision and were victorious in their battle. From then on, St George became the patron saint of those facing persecution because of their faith in Jesus. It was Richard The Lion Heart who really made St George England’s patron saint.

So if St George actually never killed a dragon, and if he never stepped foot on English soil, then why is he the patron saint of England? Only one in five people know that St George’s day falls on the 23^rd April, next week. More than a quarter of the people living in England, don’t know who their patron saint is!

The story and life of St George still has a message for us today. Our country needs to hear the story of St George again. If you go to a local pub next week, the chances are you’ll be able to have a drink to St George, it’s a good way of pubs to make their money and to make you buy more drinks! If you go to a football match, you’ll see the English flag, with St George’s cross marked on it. Well, this is all good, but it doesn’t mean much. None of this pub drinking or football team supporting actually makes a huge difference to our lives. A few years after Beckham dies, he’ll probably be forgotten. There won’t be a pub next door forever. However, here we are, in the middle of England, gathered together, 2,000 years after the life of Jesus, giving thanks to God for St George who laid down his life so that Christians might be free. We are taking part in something that unlike football or the pubs, will never fade away.

St George is not only the patron saint of England, he is the patron of all Christians who suffer for what they believe. He is also the patron saint of Aragon, Canada, Catalonia, China, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Palestine, Portugal, Russia, and Serbia. You may be thinking, well the Christians in this country are free, not persecuted or suffering for their faith. But try being a Christian in China – where it’s illegal and Christians are tortured if caught worshipping God. It wasn’t long ago that Russia relaxed the laws on Christianity, but still its difficult worshipping God there. In Zimbabwe, Anglicans are arrested for their faith or if they are found in their churches. Think of the Christians in Iraq, Afghanistan or in Jerusalem, in the middle of wars. In fact, I think, we couldn’t need St George’s story more in our world today, especially in our country, where people no longer want to believe in God. Despite the attacks and persecutions on Christianity and its believers, Christianity is still here today and is growing throughout the world. St George’s life teaches us that we should be bold in believing and trusting in Christ, who was killed for simply telling people to love each other.

The general elections are coming up soon. What things in our country need to change? What has gone wrong? What things are really important? St George knew the answer and was willing to die for it. And I think deep down, we all know the truth too.

To God, to the Queen and to St George – may we never be ashamed to say that. Amen.

Good Friday

Good Friday 2010, was the best Good Friday I have experienced. We acted out the passion of our Lord through the streets. And WOW!