A sermon preached in Blarney Church on the 5th Sunday before Advent
May the words of my mouth and the Meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our stregength and our redeemer. Amen
When We we talk about peace - I wonder what your mind jumps to:
Is it - Northern Ireland (the peace process), a war, The absence of violence
Or is it peace and quiet? A cuppa somewhere
Or is it more inner peace, serene and all being well ?
The past few weeks I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about this and I would love to explore the theme of peace in the run up to Christmas this year.
I’m exploring it because of the pastoral imperative, the historical reality and the biblical themes in the readings at this time of year.
I want to begin in the place where we are at the moment - our every day, the inner life - where our peace at first could be knocked - wars and bloodshed our not found there, you’ll not find armies there but what you will do is if it is not kept in check … is quickly discover the amount of discontent can feel hugely problematic and as devastating.
My role, my job title is strange … I have a few of them which Carrigrohane - Mission Minister, Associate minister, Priest, presbyter but there is one that I have which is very strange … very old and one I have dug into recently - that of curate
Usually the term is used in this church as a second in command - Curate
But the root of it is A curate (/ˈkjʊərɪt/ KEWR-it) is a person who is invested with the care or cure (cura) of souls of a parish.
The care of souls … And it’s with this that I would like to explore here before going on in subsequent weeks to unpack some of the other readings - looking at this theme of peace.
This morning I would love to ask a personal question - It’s one I’ve never heard asked from the front before - probably because it is such a personal question … How is your soul? Or another way to ask that question - how is your relationship with God? … as we begin the run up to advent and Christmas this year … how are you doing in your faith journey?
Having now been here 7 years this week and beginning to understand this culture a little bit better I’m very struck by the importance of taking time to ponder on these things.
The Gospel reading today gives a warning about the inner life and the outward actions being consistent.
I showed this video:
This is a huge challenge for every single one of us - I think challenged in both ways
- That actually for some times we’re doing good things but unsure about the inner life stuff
- We’re in a relationship with God but still being challenged by how that translates to outer life
It also goes a bit further - in that it speaks about prayer - and how attitudes manifest themsleves in prayer. Jesus here is telling a story - he’s being deliberately provocative for a particular reason
He is showing 2 particular prayers …
… The self-righteous & the humility
The self righteous pharisee - the one who should have it sorted - the one who knows, the religious leader
The prayer of the tax collector - who knows himself that he does stuff wrong, and casts himself upon God’s mercy
This morning as we begin to unpack peace - we begin with these two characters in Jesus’ story
The tax collector - the one who stood at a distance and simply prays for God’s mercy. IN this humility and simplicity there is Grace and relationship. Yes that’s a mystery but it’s also God’s way - it’s not rocket science.
The Pharisee - He’s got the outward appearance of success - his prayers sound like he’s got it all sorted but actually God’s got things to do in his heart.
This was a stark story - as many of Jesus’ Parables were
That challenge of praying simply - God have mercy on me - and going home in right relationship with him!
And it’s here that peace may be found! The assurance of sins forgiven. The assurance of our identity - as Daughters and Sons of the King.
I want to start here today as we look at peace through the lectionary readings on the run up to Advent & Christmas with a bit of a challenge - It’s one I’ll remind you of: It’s a challenge I was presented with at a Youth camp many years ago.
Apologies that it’s a sporting image … I’m using it as the Apostle Paul does in the passage earlier - Finishing the race … the image is of a stadium
It’s of an olympic stadium - Track and field
We’re called to be running the race - in Hebrews
In a Sports stadium - there are all sorts of areas
There’s the Crowds in their seats, there’s the area outside, there’s the changing rooms
Where are you right now?… in faith - are you running? If you are how are you doing? Are you stumbling?
Are you watching others from the stands?, are you in the changing rooms?
Where would you like to be? What would you like to be doing?
What needs to change? - what could change in order to compete in the race?
Coming back full circle - Peace - that sense of being right with God and with each other is somewhat illusive in our world today. There is always something more to get, something more to do.
However in faith the foundation never changes … Christ as our rock of our identity - are we confident in him as the source of all things ?
Yes we will get things wrong, we wil do and say things but there are a few things which we need to know to give us peace in turbulent times
- Mercy, Grace and Peace are available from God
- We’re called to be in this race … not watching from the sidelines
- Forgiveness (Justification) is available if we ask
