Dear Friends
“I have found the Church of God,” I say to myself, “I have discovered the true theology of God.” And I contemplate the Bible using the Fathers as a guide. I learn the canons so that I know the good order of the Church. I pray, I fast, I study, I even give to the poor. I can see that I do all a good Christian should do.
And yet I am far from God because I am far from his Church.
The Church is not a group of people who have the same ideas and beliefs—a sterile idea, a cold idea—but she is a community. She is a living organism, a group who have come together to form one body with Christ as our head. And a community not only worships together, as important and as vital as that is, but lives together, rejoices together, laments together. To separate myself from such a community is to separate myself from God and to separate myself from Life. Conversely, to be joined to the life of a truly Christian community brings us to a deeper union with God and a deeper love with each other.
Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
Matthew 5:23–24
leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
We arrive, all too soon, at the beginning of the Fast which will start on Monday (18th March), whether we have prepared or whether we have not; God is calling us to purify ourselves to receive the celebration of Pascha. But before I can purify myself I must accept the sin, the evil and the corruption which I have caused. As an outward sign, not only do I ask forgiveness from God, I ask forgiveness from you. If we are to be a true community, a Christian community, I must recognise that my sins have an effect on the entire world in general and on our community in particular.
For all my sins against each and every one of you, for my failings, for my actions and failures to act, I ask your forgiveness: forgive me.
This Sunday we gather to worship the living God. We gather, also, as a community to share one another’s burdens, to laugh and to cry together. And, so that we may be united together as we set out into the arena of the Fast, we will ask each other’s forgiveness.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not have a theoretical faith, an intellectual faith, but rather be a community—sharing together the joys and sorrows of our lives so that by drawing closer to each other we may draw closer to the Lord. And as we set out together, beholding the contest of Lent before us, let us first be reconciled to our brothers and sisters so that we may be worthy to offer our gifts to the Lord and receive in their place abundant Life.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Over the last few Sundays, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has divided the world into two groups. We started with the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10–14) where we witness the humility of the tax-collector and the pride of the pharisee. We take away a simple message, “Be like the tax-collector and not the pharisee.” We heard next of the two brothers in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), and we take away a slightly more nuanced message, “Repent like the younger son and don’t refuse the celebration as the older.”
Yet we cannot ignore the context in which they lived. The tax-collector, despite his humility before God, collaborated with the Romans and cheated his own people to make himself rich whereas the pharisee, despite his boasting, had done his best to follow the Law of God; the older brother stayed close to the Father and did not squander his inheritance as did the prodigal. We cannot use these parables to justify sin—sin against God, sin against our neighbour and sin against ourselves.
And so, in her love for you and her love for me, before we start Lent the Church sets before us the Last Judgement. We want to pass it by, to consider it as a parable like the others we have heard: yet if we consider it truly and humbly, it is awesome and terrifying.
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Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 15th March
Discussion on the Gospel of Matthew, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 16th March
No services
Sunday 17th March
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At 3rd URC Scout HQ, Chandlers Ford
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 3rd URC Scout HQ, Kings Rd, Chandlers Ford SO53 2EY. The Scout hall is behind and to the left of the URC Church. 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 parish?
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 Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]