Dear Friends
Christ is risen!
I pray, I fast, I go to Church, I give to charity, and in return I expect God to bless me as I define—make that top grade, be offered the job I want, win the lottery. “Lord, give me what I deserve,” I say to myself. And in his love for me, it is a mercy that he does not, because what I deserve may not be the blessings I believe them to be.
The prayer we have been given as Christians—in which we show great boldness in calling God Father—is the Lord’s Prayer. And in discussion of this, St John Cassian records for us these words,
You see then what is the method and form of prayer proposed to us by the Judge himself [the Lord’s Prayer], who is to be prayed to by it, a form in which there is contained no petition for riches, no thought of honours, no request for power and might, no mention of bodily health and of temporal life. For he who is the Author of Eternity would have men ask of him nothing uncertain, nothing paltry, and nothing temporal. And so a man will offer the greatest insult to his Majesty and Bounty, if he leaves on one side these eternal petitions and chooses rather to ask of him something transitory and uncertain; and will also incur the indignation rather than the propitiation of the Judge by the pettiness of his prayer.
St John Cassian, Ninth Conference, chapter 24
Where God offers me eternal life I ask for riches and honours in this life, where God offers me the Kingdom I ask for trinkets, where God offers me union with himself I turn and reject him. The pettiness of my prayer insults God.
And so I must change—I must realise God is not there to fulfill my requests but freely offers salvation to all. And if I humble myself, if I pray he grants me mercy, if I listen carefully to the word’s of the Lord’s Prayer which are so familiar it is easy to miss their meaning, I may be granted eternal life.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: pray. Ask for God’s mercy to be poured out on you, on us and on our world. Pray that the Lord will open our hearts to his Gospel that we may be found worthy of his Kingdom.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
Do you, or someone you know, want to join our mailing list and receive our weekly email? Then let me know.
Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
In our world we like to dismiss what others say if it does not agree with our position. “That’s just what you think,” we might say politely, if only in our head, “That’s just your opinion.” And this frees us to continue our day unencumbered with their proposal. And we do this because we fail to engage with other people, we don’t really want ‘to walk in their shoes,’ to see a different perspective on life. And yet we, too, go around feeling that no one really listens to us, that we are ignored—but we fail to recognise that we are part of the problem, part of the difficulty: “That’s just your beliefs,” we say all too glibly.
Thomas was not part of our modern, dismissive world, and was willing to listen to understand. He said, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” This sounds very sceptical to our modern ears, but what he is really saying is, “okay, show me and I will believe.” He is not willing to jump in without evidence, without proof: but given the evidence he will believe. And a week later, once he is given the evidence, he makes the greatest declaration about Christ, “My Lord and my God!” He identifies—here at the end of John’s Gospel—what the evangelist described at its beginning, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Jesus of Nazareth is God.
…
Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Listen to the Word.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 28th April
Discussion on the Book of Numbers, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 29th April
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 30th April
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We meet at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the community?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in the risen Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]