Dear Friends
Christ is risen!
I tear myself up because I want to repent but I cannot do it. I try—I really try!—to stop sinning and cannot: so I fall into despair and doubt all things. God calls me to repent, I want to repent, but nothing positive happens, if anything I get worse and sin more. I feel like I am moving away rather than towards the Lord.
Our modern world thinks of each of us as autonomous—self-ruled—units who are completely in charge of our lives and our actions. This is a lie. Cain was upset that his offering to God was not accepted, so we read,
And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
Genesis 4:5–7
So the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’
Sin is lying in wait to pounce on Cain, to take him and control him, to make him passive to sin’s control. And it is lying in wait to pounce on me. Because sin is not me choosing to do evil, my sin is when I allow myself to be controlled by this force, this spirit.
And so my repenting should not be about “trying not to sin,” but a twofold action: firstly to accept that I have given up my own freedom by allowing sin to control me, accepting it and resolving to invite the Holy Spirit in that I may resist more strongly, and secondly to put right the harm I have caused. To repent is to restore God’s righteousness and justice in the world. If I have stolen some money, I cannot merely say “I am sorry,” but I must return it to its owner; if I have said an evil word against someone I must serve him and honour his dignity and worth.
And this is how we can do something which many find difficult to comprehend: we can repent on behalf of another. By this we mean, because we love both the wrongdoer and those who are wronged, we put right the evil that others have committed so that they too may be forgiven.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we do harm to ourselves by beating ourselves up over our sin—“I still sin,” we cry out in despair as if we have the strength within us to stop, as if we ourselves are greater than great ascetics who continued to confess and repent throughout their lives. But the mark of a Christian is not one who does not sin, it is one who repents over sin, who weeps and laments when he is mastered by it and restores all who have endured evil because of it. Let us, in these joyous and radiant days of Pascha continue to repent our sins: not in morbidity but in profound gratitude to our Lord and Saviour who is risen and is leading us to Life, eternal Life, Life without end.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
I wish to you all, to your families and friends, a joyful Pascha:
may the Light of the Resurrection continue to shine in our hearts.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“But some doubted.” Having seen all that had been accomplished for us and our salvation—the Triumphant Entry, the Last Supper, the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the road to Golgotha, the Crucifixion, the Empty Tomb, the risen Lord—having been witnesses to all, “some doubted.” And we, too, two millennia later, are inclined to doubt. “How can this be?” I ask myself, “They must have been wrong.”
But who suffers and dies for a lie? If this were made up by his disciples, why would they go to cruel and excruciating torture. The Apostle tells us,
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
After that he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
Then last of all he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” (First Corinthians 11:3–8)
This is a remarkable number to maintain a lie, or to be deceived. But I want to maintain my doubt despite the evidence, because to accept the Truth of the Resurrection requires something of me: I must be converted to Christ, I must be changed by Christ, I must repent. No longer can I maintain the pretence that I am in charge of my life: I was—I am!—a slave to sin and journeying towards death but now I have been bought with a price and a servant of the Most High.
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Read this Sermon, Some doubted.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
Here and now, in our midst, Christ is risen!
All around us Christ is risen!
Christ, who has demolished death,
who has destroyed the power of the Satan,
in whom is granted all power and authority in heaven and on earth, is risen.
And joy permeates all the earth, because Christ is risen!
Yesterday he was dead, but today and forever he is alive.
Yesterday my end was in the tomb and in Hades,
today I am alive forever,
because Christ is risen!
Christ is risen and I too will arise,
Christ is risen and I too will rejoice,
Christ is risen and I too am transfigured.
Christ is risen and all is forgiven,
my enemies are forgiven and I am forgiven.
Christ is risen and the Satan is bound,
Christ is risen and he is mocked,
Christ is risen and his unjust hold over me has been broken.
Our human race is transformed,
Our human race is made whole,
Our human race is perfected,
Because Christ is risen!
And having received the Resurrection,
having received the risen Christ,
Let us go out from here and declare to the world,
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing Life!
Christ is risen!
To our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
…
Read this Sermon, Christ is risen!
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 10th May
Discussion on the Gospel of Matthew, 8 pm.
Online only
Saturday 11th May
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm.
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Sunday 12th May
Matins and Divine Liturgy, 9 am.
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, 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 the risen Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]