Heaven Is Like A Wedding

This weekend a young couple celebrated their first Sunday Eucharist together as wife and husband. And as we share the body and blood of Christ, their young faces are glowing, full of hope and promise for their life ahead.

Saturdays often mean weddings during the month of September. It’s a magnificent time where the celebration takes part in and outside the church. There exists a touching connectivity of life’s cycle when you stand in an English churchyard, among the cemetery stones from centuries past, and you celebrate not only the couple’s marriage, but God’s blessings in the renewal of life.

Marriages for Christians haven't always taken place in churches. The couple used to make their marriage vows in the church porch, with family and friends gathered around to witness. The priest was there to register their commitment and then lead the party into church to pray with them.

In the eighteenth century the whole ceremony moved into the church and some clergy worried that it would look as though the priest was marrying the couple, where, in fact, the couple themselves are the ministers of their marriage.

They give themselves to each other lovingly and for life. The role of the priest is to witness, register, pray with and bless them. And it’s a great privilege and honour to be part of their life history.

Weddings aren't just for the happy couple. We often find ourselves thinking about our own relationship, giving thanks or asking forgiveness, mending hurts and renewing vows.

And always a favourite reading from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13: ‘Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.’

You can see why Jesus said the kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding. It’s because love is irresistible and the love the couple have for each other overflows on us all. ‘Three things last for ever,’ said St Paul, ‘faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.’



Come Holy Spirit and fill our hearts with Your love at the start of this new day. Bless especially those making commitments to each other this week and all of us starting our lives anew today. Amen

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Who Are We Forgetting?

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I Choose You!

Isn't it wonderful when God answers prayer? When you know there is nothing in the world that could change a situation, and God steps in and does something amazing. When we have come to the end of ourselves is usually when it happens - have you noticed that? When we have tried everything in our power and given up!

"I lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help, my help comes from the Lord." Oh how true! How sweetly, sweetly true!

Lord in Heaven, I choose You this day, I choose to worship You. I choose to give You everything I am. All that You have given me I choose to offer for Your service. I choose to love You, and offer up my life to be Your humble servant. Guide me, Oh Lord, in Your light. Now and forever. Amen

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

9/11 Finding Love on September 11

Just as with countless others, I find this to be a difficult day. My own life and my family’s were profoundly affected on September 11. Those events brought into sharp focus the realisation of what we should always hold dearest and most precious.

As the spectre of death was imminent, many people who had access to phones telephoned their spouses, parents, children, friends and family members to say not goodbye, but ‘I love you.’

During those brief seconds, all those lives focused on what really matters; love. Positions, job titles, possessions- they were now insignificant. In just a few fleeting seconds, the true essence of living, of life, of all our existence, was stripped to its rawest form.

The women and men; the clerks, directors, flight attendants, managers, cleaners, cooks, waiters, pilots, waitresses, firemen, medics, any one of them, whether at the World Trade Centre, Pentagon or aboard the four doomed aircraft, any one of them would have traded everything they had for life. Everything!

When death was falling upon Jesus, He looked down from the cross and saw His mother and his dear friend, the disciple John. ‘Woman, here is your son,’ He said. And to John, ‘Here is your mother.’ (John 19:26-27). These are the words echoed by those who phoned their loved ones: ‘I love you, take care of each other, be a family.’ They are also the words of the Church: love, compassion, and forgiveness.

People hunger for this message. We want to know what is important in life, what it takes to make a difference; is my faith enough, and what about the things I have done wrong, will I find forgiveness? The Christian message speaks of the worth of every individual, of forgiveness and of life not overcome by death.

Jesus is constantly transforming us, moving us to the centre of our being, where His image is most beautiful and precious. It is from this spiritual centre, that God is sending us to the outer limits of our capacity to love.

The World Trade Centre stood as a beacon to people all over the world. It reflected both the rising and setting of the sun and countless memories of happier times, whether it was falling in love at Windows on the World, or a child’s holiday trip to one of the world’s tallest buildings.

In the aftermath of its collapse, it reflected anxiety, fear and sadness. But it also reflected the heroic efforts that continue to reveal the absolute goodness of God inherent in every individual.

One of the most important roles of our Christian lives is to see within the fractured existence of humanity, the image of God waiting to be released. It is to see within division and animosity the seeds of reconciliation.

My greatest prayer during these uncertain times is that we maintain a spirit of reconciliation, a posture of openness and a respect towards one another.

Whether it is America, Britain, or any country where the freedom of democracy reigns, we must be nations where people who hold different opinions can express our thoughts and feelings without fear of ridicule, or rejection.

None of us possesses absolute truth, however, all of us need to listen and speak across passionately held beliefs. This is not a call to agreement, but to respectful listening. In the past we have not done this very well.

In a world beset by religious and ethnic strife, the Christian must take the risk of following Christ into the heart of saint and sinner alike, of friend and stranger, of the beloved and the enemy.

In his first letter, John reminds us, ‘Whoever says, I am in the light; while hating a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light.’ (John 2:9-10)

Together, we must live into this teaching, or together we shall shrink into the dark shadows of further racial, religious and ethnic divisions.

We pray for the souls lost in this tragedy. We pray for those who bear the responsibility of governmental power, that they use that power wisely. We pray for all who have suffered because of aggression.

We pray for all those whose lives have been affected by conflict and aggression.

And we pray Lord, that You guide each of us to find peace.

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Loving and life giving Lord, we pray for all those who lost their lives on the morning of September 11. We pray that Your love touches the families and all who suffered as a result of this tragic event. We pray too, Lord, for those who sought to use evil to impose their own misguided values. We pray that all who seek to commit crimes of violence and aggression are intervened by Your love and tenderness towards all Your children, that they may use their lives for goodness instead. Amen

Who Is My Neighbour?

‘Who is my neighbour?’That was the question asked of Jesus by a legal expert, to explain one of the great commandments: ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’ What followed was the parable of the Good Samaritan, who rescued a half-dead stranger by the roadside.

But is my neighbour just today’s stranger, or does this include tomorrow’s – almost a stranger by definition? Two thousand years ago the consequences of today’s actions did not impact so significantly on tomorrow’s outcomes: how different it is now! We are beset by such challenges, whether environmental, medical, political or financial, and all the evidence shows that the present has much higher priority than the future.

Projecting accountability forwards helps to bring things more sharply into focus. For example, a business director who sacrifices future company earnings to boost short-term results during his tenure of office fails its shareholders.

A politician who refuses to ratify an environmental treaty in the interest of cheap energy today fails not only his people but quite possibly many others. A doctor who pursues a line of research in denial of its long-term risks fails humanity. A society that fails to make adequate pension provisions places an unreasonable burden of care on the next generation.

Ethics is a comfortably sounding academic term: it’s really about loving our neighbour of the future as much as we love ourselves today. In some respects many secular charities and lobbying groups are far ahead of religious bodies: for example, we’ve been warned for years of the large numbers of economic refugees who will arrive from countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, but how many churches have prepared themselves to receive them and to help them find sanctuary?

Perhaps we draw too literal a meaning from those words in the ‘Sermon on the Mount:' ‘do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.’ This teaching is about dealing with anxiety and stress, not about disregarding our responsibility for the future. When Jesus speaks of building a house on rock rather than sand, He’s focusing on the merits of good forward planning.

So as loving our neighbour is one of the two great commandments from which ‘hang all the law and the prophets’, perhaps we should be better stewards of that which is entrusted to us today, and care more about the next generation, and the world it will inherit.

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Anglican Prayer

Give us, O God, the insight to see the service which is given us in the ordinary and everyday things of life, and the grace to say thanks. And help us to love all our neighbours so that we share Your word. Amen

Filled With The Spirit

I was sixteen when I bought my first alcoholic drink. I put on a jacket and tie, trying to look older and slipped into a cocktail lounge, hoping that the darkness would further help my façade.

The lounge was in a hotel that had seen its glory many decades before and my fellow imbibers were of the same genre. Trying to appear sophisticated I ordered a gin and tonic. I could hardly swallow the stuff. And as I sat and listened to the extremely mediocre pianist play the piano several of the ‘locals' began to chat with me.

It wasn’t long before I found myself dancing with a woman who had sailed past the age of sixty many moons ago and she was possibly well past the tidal markers of seventy. She kept asking the pianist to replay the tune from Cabaret. And today, all I can remember about the woman is that she was the image of ‘Elsie’ from the song.

It was all a bit of fun and laughter, I thought, until I woke up the next morning, discovering that I had thrown up during the night and I was sporting a splitting headache. No longer did it seem funny, nor even the ‘in’ thing to do. I tried to console myself with the idea that the evening must have been fun because I had drunk so much and because I felt so bad.

Thankfully we grow up...sometimes.

Last week both the American and British papers suggested that binge-drinking was fast becoming the new global social disease, and that something needs to be done fast. But I’m not sure that changing licensing laws, the price of drinks, or banning happy hours will bring us to the root of the problem.

A lot of people binge drink to escape themselves. The terms we use for getting drunk reflect this intention: we want to ‘get smashed’, ‘out of our trees,’ and ‘off our heads.’ Drinking is a way of escaping our troubles – if only for a few hours. But people also drink to have a good time; our brains are wired to seek pleasure and man will fill himself with whatever does the job. The trouble is that in the process we so often settle for 'the shadow,' the fleeting pleasure of drunkenness. It's really an ersatz version of a greater want; a blurred glimpse of the real freedom God intended for us.

The Bible sees wine as a sign of God’s blessing and acknowledges that it gladdens life. It also encourages us to drink deeply – not with wine but with God’s Spirit. Curiously the activity of God’s Spirit seems to have the same effect on people as alcohol. Which is why so many biblical figures experiencing religious ecstasy are accused of being drunk. Indeed, the word ecstasy means to stand outside yourself- to actually be out of your mind.

Jesus, who must have spent a lot of time in bars with binge drinkers, was accused of being a drunk. Just as the apostles, who on being filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost were thought to have had too much wine.

When Peter had to explain their behaviour to amazed and outraged onlookers, he quoted the prophet Joel, who said that in the last days God would pour out His spirit on all flesh.

The difference was that this spirit was something new. Yes, it would fill people with joy and boldness; yes it would help them lose their inhibitions, make them laugh and cry, and even sing; but this new wine wouldn’t make them violent and want to trash themselves or the town. Instead it would transform, for the better, the way they lived their lives. Causing them to engage more deeply with the world rather than escape it.

This Holy Spirit is a spirit that, once drunk, does not lead us to oblivion, but sets us free to greet the day with a full heart and a clear head.
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Lord God, fill us with Your spirit so that we may be whole. We humbly beseech You to teach us and have mercy upon us. Amen

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