Dear Friends
I am a British citizen and that gives me certain rights—I can live in this country, I can work, I can vote: citizenship is mine yet I do not have to do anything for it, it is mine by right, by the circumstances of my birth.
And I try to think in the same way about the Church: I am a Christian because I was baptised. This gives me certain rights, certain privileges,: I can receive communion and other ministrations from the Church, I can take positions of influence and authority within her structures. I want Christianity to be my ‘spiritual citizenship’ alongside my nationality being my ‘worldly citizenship.’ And I take to heart the words of the Apostle, “For our citizenship is in heaven,” (Philippians 3:20) and I claim my place alongside the saints in heaven and alongside the Britons on earth.
And I have missed the Gospel. I have treated the Church as something which brings about an instantaneous change in my status—I was not a Christian, then I was baptised, now I am a Christian and none may take that away from me. But to behave like that is akin to a man marrying a women for the sake of a wedding certificate and believing that constitutes marriage: it’s a part, an important part, but as marriage takes nurture and care day by day—so too with Christianity. If I claim to be a Christian and then do not nurture it in my life I am living a lie.
Christ tells us,
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.
Matthew 7:21–23
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
It is not enough to say “Lord, Lord,”—in other words, it is not enough to claim to be a Christian—but we must do the will of the Father. And it is the Father’s will that we repent, that we follow Christ bearing our own crosses, that we serve our neighbours. Yet I still want to protest and I quote again the words of the Lord,
He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Mark 16:16
And I continue my protest, “Lord, I believe,” I cry out, “and I was baptised: why would it be necessary to do anything?” But this misinterprets the word “believe.” The meaning meant in Scripture is much closer to “faithful” in modern English. And this makes more sense when we hold it alongside other biblical passages. The Lord said, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel,
All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth.
Matthew 28:18–20
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
“To observe all things that I have commanded you,” does not mean simply “to watch them” but that we should “do them:” other translations of the Bible write “to obey everything,” to make this clear. So I cannot hide behind the words in Mark’s Gospel which might better be translated,
He who is faithful and is baptised will be saved; but he who is not faithful will be condemned.
And so I must change, I must stop using Christianity as a type of “spiritual citizenship:” rather, I must be faithful to Christ by obeying the will of the Father. St Sophrony of Essex tells us,
The priesthood is not given to someone as a reward for his virtues, but as a gift for building up the Church.
And while this is particularly true of priests and their ordination, it can also be applied to the faithful and baptism. Our baptism is not a reward for us having found Christ—in any case, it is He who has found us—but that we may serve for the building up of the Church. Let us then, dear brothers and sisters, turn again to the living God, let us repent, let us come together and become the Body of Christ in this world which is in need of His love. Let us not treat our status as Christians as mere citizenship but as commissions to love and to serve our neighbours and to bring His love into our society.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“If anyone desires to come after Me,” says the Lord,
“let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
— Luke 9:23
For as Christ was crucified so are we to be co-crucified with Him—crucifying our egos, our desires, our sins—that as Christ is risen so are we to be co-risen with Him. Christ’s actions have a universal significance, but to be a follower of Him we need to follow, we need to act as He acts.
“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you?
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’”
— John 13:12–17
For indeed, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) We are called to emulate Christ, to serve as Christ. “Peace to you!” He tells us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” (John 20:21)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
— John 1:14
And this ‘beholding of His glory,’ is expressed to us in a different way in today’s Gospel, “A Sower went out to sow his Seed.” And as Christ is the High Priest and the Sacrifice, the One Who offers and the One Who is offered, so He is both the Sower and the Seed. And if we are followers of Him, if we are Christians—which is to say ‘little christs’—then we must sow the Seed too. And we sow the Seed through our prayer, and we sow the Seed through our service and love towards our neighbours, and we sow the Seed through becoming the Body of Christ by gathering together to offer the Eucharist.
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Read this Sermon, Sow the Seed.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 17th October
Discussion on the Prophecy of Isaiah, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 18th October
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Sunday 19th October
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Online session is via Google Meet: please get indd 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
webenquiry@orthodoxeastleigh.uk