Officer arrest that man!

No not really but there is a touch of "What's good for the goose is good for the gander!"

Looking for God in our world - A sermon for Advent1

ISAIAH 64: 1-9; MARK 13: 32-37

I used to think that Advent was a time to encourage people into nice warm thoughts ahead of Christmas. I was wrong.

Advent is a time to be real rather than a time to seek a cosy escape from reality. For in these weeks we should not just be looking to celebrate the birth in Bethlehem but looking and preparing for the time when the Kingdom that Christ proclaimed might come in all its fullness

For certainly the world does not always seem to be the nicest of places. We've heard this morning from the Black Eyed Peas of the hurts that are inflicted by humans on fellow humans. And in the "Streets of London" we have heard an echo of the emptiness that is experienced by so many.

And even were it not for that we have been reminded so much of the dark side of human existence in the last week with a greed induced economic collapse all around us and the snaphots of human violence that have been so terribly enacted in Mumbai this past week. Like the Black Eyed Peas we find ourselves asking;

"Where is the love?"

And if we think of our own individual difficulties and heartaches we can be tempted into total despair and even a Blue Christmas service may be unable to reach us.

Yet we are not the first to feel this way. Our scripture from Isaiah reminds us of a time when the temptation to despair must have been at its greatest. Away from home, exiles lived in Babylon. And as they lived there, they sought answers to their situation and many resolved to keep faith with God even if it meant being the clay in the hands of a potter God. And dreamed they of a time when God "would rend the heavens and come down."

Darkness is also to be found in the world of Mark's community. For this was about the time of the Jewish uprising against Rome which resulted in Jerusalem being starved out and then completely destroyed. Yet Mark brings a reflection of Jesus about the day of the Lord when God's justice and liberation would come. Those who heard would have desperately hoped that the day would be soon. After all the world as they knew it was in meltdown. But the words of Jesus whilst pointing to a cause for hope give no help in timing whatsoever. A simple instruction is given;

"Be on guard! Be alert!"

And that is in essence what Advent is about. It is a time to see round us but in the light of God. And to co operate with every sign of God's kingdom that we see. For whilst empires and ideologies will pass away, God's purposes will never be abandoned.

Yes we can cry out "Where is the love?" But I have news for you. The love which comes from God will ultimately be revealed as stronger than hatred, death, prejudice and destruction. Oh may it be soon! May our prayer be as the words of William Cowper based on our Isaiah reading;

"O rend the heavens, come quickly down!
And make a thousand hearts thine own!"

Meet the leaker in chief

Oops it is none other tha Gordon Brown!.

I salute Brown for his record in opposition when with the aid of leaks he was a right pain for the Conservative Government. Having supported his use of leaks I cannot condemn those on the other side of the House who do so. Whilst we have a culture of political secrecy and cover ups, we will need those who leak for the Executive to be held to acount. That which is leaked may be unwelcome for the agendas we hold but without such leaking, all the cards will lie with governments who are themselves the most assiduous of leakers.

Where is the love - A song that reminds usof our need for God

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

It just ain't the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin'
in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead in spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)


Courtesy of Black Eyed Peas

A world to win

A world to win is an excellent website which points to the need for a progressive response to the economic crisis rather than the current government's love in with capitalism.

The site also has this escellent poem by Donald James Dolby;

This world may seem beyond repair
To even those who really care
When war and strife and corporate greed
Take precedence over the need to feed.

Though sometimes it seems all ripped and torn
Hope is gone and dreams forlorn
It’s those in power deserve our scorn
Just believe that we can break
Their stranglehold and somehow make
A fairer world with a fairer cake
No more to let them con and thieve
Their lies will never more deceive
It can be done if we believe.

Come comrades now, come comrades all
Come the people, heed the call
Tell them all, bring them in
We still have A World To Win!

Time to win that world, surely!

Damian Green and the enemies of freedom

It really is a travesty that Tory spokesman Damian Green was arrested yesterday. It is not that I agree with the guy on much at all. But for a man to be arrested for acquiring the leaks that are necessary to hold a government to account is a sure sign that we are becoming careless in matters of civil liberties and democracy.

After all there is nothing new about opposition politicians using leaked information. Even our current Prime Minister was in his years in opposition quite a dab hand at receiving leaks. Indeed Craig Murray reminds us we actually need more leaks to hold the Executive to account. After all as he reminds us, the Labour Government has already abandoned the principle that no man is above the law by its disgraceful decision to be bullied by the arms industry and the Saudi Government into halting the BAE Systems corruption investigation by the SFO. Any government that behaves in such a way is in need of being leaked upon.

I know that governments traditionally dislike leaks - that is other than the convenient ones they themselves facilitate- whilst oppositions tend to value the opportunities they provide. Frankly I care for the self interest of neither. What matters is the public right to know. As Murray ends his article;

The good citizenry of London and Cambridge will not be grabbing their pikes and muskets today; but they should. The arrest of Damian Green for doing his job of opposing the executive is a step too far in rolling back centuries of democratic achievement. The pretext is the excessive desire of this government to keep all public information secret, and prevent the taxpayer from finding out what has been done in their name and at their expense. This is the most secretive, as well as the most authoritarian, government of the modern era.

I can comment with more authority than most in saying that civil servants now have a duty to leak: the official narrative is now so often far from the truth across the whole field of government, that if civil servants do not leak there can be no informed democratic debate. To arrest an opposition MP for finding out what is really happening is a grim, grim move.

So let's welcome leaks other than on matters of national security. The principle of accouintability demands it.

I find it amazing that the Prime Minister and members of the governemnt claim not to have known of the imminent arrest of Mr Green when David Cameron was informed. Indeed government ignorance on this matter suggests that the police are out of control in our capital. That is unless government denials actually leave wriggle room. They may not have known of the imminent arrest but did they know of the inquiry or even authorise it? I guess that requires a brave leaker to come forth.

Finally Speaker Martin comes out of the matter in bad light. That he allowed the anti terrorist police into a MP's office beggars belief. The sooner the reputation of his high office is restored by his dismissal the better will be the health of Parliamentary democracy.

Recession - has it come to this?

John Sergeant Superstar

As someone who had to act the fool in ballroom dancing classes many years ago in order to distract attention from my incompetence, I salute the peoples' John Travolta for his sterling efforts. And thanks also for the inspiration for this morning's school assembly!

What does God think of Obama? Not this surely!

Sorry I can't give you an answer other than god loves Obama as God loves us all. Anyhow here is a preacher - believe it or not with a doctorate who is an author of books- who comes up with the fantastic notion that God wants us to call Obama "Tarzan." I think thgis is the craziest preaching I've ever seen and I've seen some wild stuff. Does anyone in the USA take Dr James David Manning seriously. Even Bernard (the unfunny Mancunian so called comedian rather than the Congegationalist) couldn't match this drivel

@ Yahoo! Video

HAT TIP: Sanctus 1

Advent candle Lighting

Here is a chance to help me. My church in Bideford is in the practice of lighting candles during Advent. We link this with singing an appropriate song to take us through Advent. I tend to find a different one each year. But this year I am devoid of inspiration.

So how about a suggestion or two - but not "The Holly and the Ivy" or I'll scream.

Parable of the Talents and God's economy - A sermon for Pentecost 28

MATTHEW 25: 14-30

And so to the parable of the talents - a parable that reveals God in a most disturbing way or does it?

Certainly if we treat this parable as an allegory we may find ourselves seeing God in a frightening way. After all the man who goes on a journey is a throughly unpleasamt figure. He is basically an absent landlord who puts no effort in but makes sure that he gets his share out of the estate. Those who listened to Jesus would feel no sympathy for such a man. After all it was one of the painful realities of that time that such people lived the life of Riley out of the efforts of peasants who were left with but a subsistence lifestyle. And in this case our absent landlord is a particularly odious character. He seems to have no feeling for religion for he is clearly prepared to benefit from the usury which is so condemned in the Hebrew Bible. And if he does not get his rewards his revenge is frightening. Surely this monster cannot be equated with the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ.

So let's take a look at the parable. The landowner goes far away but before going he leaves talents to his servants. Please note that talents is not what we understand by the term. It is purely and simply a sum of money. Indeed it would seem that a talent would be equivalent to about fifteen years wages for a labourer so the sums left would not be inconsiderable to those left to care for them. Anyhow, one man receives five talents to care for, another receives two talents and the third receives one talent. By the time that the landlord returns he is pleased to find that the men who had been left five and two talents have doubled their money. However, he is less pleased to discover that the man left one talent has kept it safe but no taken steps to increase its value. Indeed he responds by taking what this man has to give to the others before banishing this man out into a world of darkness.

So what is Jesus seeking to tell us here? Increasingly I have found myself coming to admire the third servant. He doesn't sell his religion down the road by indulging in usury. He refuses to collabarate with the injustice of the system as practiced by the landowner. He knows the landowner is a hard man who harvests where he has not sown and he is not prepared to collabarate with a system of injustice. In short he calls time!

In many ways this third servant is a nonconformist. He is even a whistleblower who is not prepared to be a part of a world of greed and exploitation. And surely our world needs such characters. The tragic story of Baby P this week shows the need for whistleblowers who are prepared to step outside the system to sound the warnings. Such people are in reality treasures rather than the pariahs they are so often treated as. And indeed as we witness today people's lives being wasted by the greed of men in suits whose lust for wealth and power has brought about economic disaster for so many, surely non conformity is something to be prized. On what is Prisoners's Sunday I think of predictions that the result of wild gambling on finance markets and governmenal deceit in encouraging a boom on the never never as though it could go on forever, is that there will be an increase in crime out of the difficulties that people suffer. Now I am making no excuse for crime but I can't help but feel that some of life's less successful people will feel driven to wrong actions out of need. How ironic that the real wrongdoers who have created the situation will be the first from their ivory towers to bemoan supposedly cushy prison life. Certainly one for Irony Corner is that! And there we see the case revealed starkly for stepping outside of the norm and naming exploitation for what it truly is!

Our parable seems to end on a note of defeat. The voice of the whistleblower is silenced. And this is how it so often is in our world. The voice of the powerful is reinforced. Note those words;

"For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

And that is how it often is in our world. For we live in a land where Russian and other billionaires live in opulence whilst social housing has received an ever lower priority in recent years. We live in a land with a social underclass whose needs are so often blotted out. We can afford major Games, shiney nukes and the likes but decent homes for all is beyond us. Lloyd George's "Homes for Heroes" have yet to materialise even 90 years after the war in which caused the pledge.

But fear not! The world witnessed in this parable, the world which is failing around us today, are worlds whose days are numbered. For this is a parable that contrasts the world of domination with the promise of the Kingdom of God. As the prophecy about the sheep and goats which follows this scripture makes clear, there is an alternative world in which the needs of the hurting and life's losers are the true priority. And in this parable, Jesus is contrasting what he sees around him with that which he has come to inaugurate namely the Kingdom of heaven.And that is a Kingdom which turns all our realities right way up. Soon we will hear a Palestinian peasant girl responding to the revelation of a son saying;

"He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud to their inmost thoughts;
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty."

Do you see it? As Advent approached, we are encouraged to reimagine the world with the powerless empowered and the exploiters day of exploitation brought to an end. For this is the Kingdom of Heaven breaking out amongst us.

But back to our parable. I think it really matters how we interpret it. After all, the third servant acts on the basis of how he sees the landowner. Take this story as an allegory and we can easily see God as wrathful and unforgiving. We can see God emblodying the status quo of society with all its injustices. But that is not how it needs to be. Instead see God working through the third servant challenging the dark night of wrong and daring to work for a better way, a way in which the needs of the lowly take priority over the greeds of the mighty, a world in which the voices of those who cry are paramount over the shouts of those used to getting their own way. As we move towards Advent, may we lift up our eyes to see God's possibilities and then may we embrace them.

Remembrance Day

This is just a beautiful moving song that reminds us of the cost of war by Holly in memory of her great granddad who was killed in 1916.

Someone's children! - A sermon for Remembrance Day

MICAH 4: 1 - 4: MATTHEW 5: 1 - 12


It was in the Bosnian War. A reporter covering the conflict whilst in Sarajevo saw a young girl shot by a sniper. He threw down his note pad and ran to the girl and a man who had just picked her up before helping them both into his car.

As the reporter drove, the man holding the bleeding child begged him to drive faster giving increasingly desperate updates on the girl's condition. Sadly by the time they got to the hospital, the girl was dead. Together the two men went to wash the blood off their hands and clothes. After a bit the man who had held the girl, turned to the journalist and said;

"This is a terrible task for me. I must go and tell her father that his child is dead. He will be heartbroken."

The reporter was stunned. Looking at the grieving man, he stuttered out the words;

"But I thought she was your child."

The man looked back and replied;

"But aren't they all our children?"

And he was right. All someone's children! All our children!


Today we gather to remember those who have been caught up in countless wars - those who fought, those who were a part of reserved occupations, those who drove ambulances, those who were conscientous objectors or anti war protestors. All people whose ordinary lives were caught up in extraordinary events.

All someone's children! All our children!


And through our poppies and silence we particularly remember those who were killed and those whose lives were particularly blighted as a result of the physical and mental scars of war. And those left behind to weep and mourn.

All someone's children! All our children!


And today we think of those who their cause acquitted themselves both well and badly. Those who for their country and cause carried out acts of cruelty and wanton slaughter and those sacrificed themselves for colleagues and certainly there have been some incredible example of this evenb within the last five years.

All someone's children! All our children!


Today we rightly remember those who suffered in combat or as a result of combat. This is a debt of honour. The money raised by poppies will through the endeavours of the Royal British Legion help those in greatest needs and certainly as a country if we send people into harms way we need to ensure the proper level of post conflict support. But today is also a day in which we look forwards. Bruce Kent has reminded us that this is a day in which our looking back leads us to look forwards. Listen for a moment to his words in a recently published book;

"How should we remember the horror as well as the courage of war? From cemetry to cemetry there would only come one answer from soldiers and civilians killed as a result of conflict. If you want to honour our memory, work for the abolition of war."

Amen to that! Thomas Hardy sums up the sheer craziness of war in his poem "The man he killed" when in the final verse he writes;

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half - a crown."

And no less a person than President Dwight Eisenhower who was the Supreme Allied Commander in World War 2 agrees. Hear his words which may yet one day come true;

"I like to think that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it"

And for good measure this great general also stated that every gun made, every warship launched and every rocket fired is "a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."

But of course, Eisenhower knew like those who have been in combat, the harsh realities of war in a way that self appointed armchair generals can never know them. He like those whose memories are persnal know that the American General Sherman was right to conclude after the American Civil War in which he was a participant;

"War is hell."

Hell because of what it does to people. People who are ultimately;

Someone's children! All our children!


And of course, true peace is more, yes more, than the abscence of armed force. In the Old Testament we meet the concept of Shalom which far from being a stand off is the sort of peace in which all are able to grow and tind true wellbeing. It is the peace in which diverse people freely come to repect each other and to wish each other well. It is a beautiful vision of what is not yet but may one day be and should one day be.

But too often suspicions over differences pull us apart and create suspicions which ultimately can be the prelude to conflict. And yes, even religion is all too often a trigger in this downward slope. For our world is one in which faith has come to divide rather than to unite. So listen for a moment to that great German thinker, Hans Kung and hear him saying;

"There can be no peace amongst nations without peace amonst religions. No peace is possible between religions without dialogue between them."

No option for remaining strangers here! No space for misrepresentation here! For if Jesus is truly the Prince of Peace, we need to take the building of bridges with other faiths seriously. That is why I have just agreed to be responsible for Interfaith issues in our District - not because of a strange hobby but because it is an essential part of any peacemaking agenda! And yes, the Christian, the Muslim, the Jew, the Hindu children are all;

Someone's children! All our children!


But is there a message from God? Bruce Kent sees the existence of God as a reason for hope that war is not forever, saying;

"War is not inevitable. I don't think we can believe in God and be pessimistic about the future. The world is in God's hands. So we have to keep going, keep on working for the abolition of war."

And certainly there is vision in our scripture readings. Micah, living through an age of uncertainty with the growing threat of Assyria a real source of fear for Israel in the eighth century BCE, offers a vision of a time when swords will be turned into ploughshares. Sure, this is far from our present day realities. And yet it is an inspiration. An inspiration that has bron some fruits in Mozambique. There in a land with a backdrop of a terrible civil war, the Christian Council of Mozambique has been a promoter of a scheme where people are offered sewing machines, ploughs and other tools in return for handing their guns in. The scheme has brought new hope for many and over 100,000 guns have been handed in. A small step you may say but perhaps a prophetic stance whose time has come to be fulfilled on a grander stage.

And then there's Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount offering the highest of blessings on peacemakers;

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God."

This in an age where force was accepted and peacemakers were few! Yet Jesus here inaugurates a vision in which there is no higher calling than to work for peace. Of course, he doesn't say it will be easy. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. But he does call the likes of you and me to be the bridge builders of our day seeking to knock down walls that divide and building bridges that bring reconciliation to the widest of extremes.


But why? The reason is simple. God loves all the created order. God loves those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in conflict. god loves those who have become the victims of human enmity. After all they are all;

Someone's children! All our children!

And God who is the father of all of us with all our diversities, desires out of love that we shall all discover not the reality of being slaughtered by guns or bombs but rather that we should enter into the joy of Shalom. For all of us are love by God and through God we areall connected whatever our nation, race or creed. War is ultimately that human disaster in which God's children kill God's children. And because God is God we know that war cannot have the final say. Instead we look to that future in which God's world and creatures find the true peace about which prophets dreamed and Jesus spoke. That future when we find that all belong together with responsibilities for each otherwhen we shall see new life and know that our duty and delight of care is rooted in knowing that all are

Someone's children! All our children! God's children!

Hope reborn

It is not that I see Barack Obama as the answer to all the world's problems. He is in essence a centrist and his views on the Afghan War and the Middle East leave me with concerns.

But that is not what matters tonight. The truth is that Obama's victory will represent a resounding rejection of the barbarity and callousness of the Bush years. His campaigning has certainly encouraged people to hope again. And to me that is reason enough to rejoice in Obama's victory. No longer will political morality plunge the depths that have occurred under Bush.

Tomorrow will be a glorious new dawn in which people are able to dream of a better world rather than merelcy accept bloodshed and inequality. Will all the hopes of this night be fulfilled. I am not sure. Certainly Obama's America will be a kinder place than that of Bush. Certainly it is special that 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, a black man can actually reach the highest office in the USA, King's dream moving ever closer to reality.

But ultimately, the issues of peace, healthcare, environmental protection,poverty and the reduction of a bloated prison population are what an Obama Presidency will be judged on. For Obama to succeed on these matters would make tonorrow a great new dawn. the other side of the coin would be for an Obama Presidency to fail to make progress on these matters. This would be a crushing defeat for the capacity to hope.

In Britain, we have experienced the Blair years which begun with hope and ended in the mire of corruption, warfare and dishonest government. Hopefully America's dawn will be much brighter.

So congratulations President Obama! May the hopes invested in you be well placed!

"Masks removed" - A sermon for Pentecost 26

MICAH 3: 5 - 12; MATTHEW 23: 1 - 12

I wonder how many of you have owned those Russian dolls, you know the dolls that are stacked inside each other. Only by reaching the smallest do we reach reality. All else are but maks.

In today's scripture readings I think there is a clear mesage of the need to be real. look first for a moment to our scripture from Micah. A rural Judaean from the 8th century BCE, Micah lived in an era in which both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel were threatened by the Assyrian Empire. Micah's message was to proclaim God's justice in a thoroughly uncompromising way at a time when other prophets courted popularity by seeking to please their political masters. This put him on a path of conflict with political leaders who merely wanted the prophets to support the system rather than to challenge it.

To Micah, the system was unjust. The needs of the poor were being neglected. The rich and powerful were getting their way and a gap between rich an poor was constantly increasing - shades of today! And to make it worst the voice of the prophets which once had been a voice for justice was now little more than the pouring of holy oil upon a system which was far removed from the ideals that were God given. Religious rites had replaced justice and kindness in being the ways of serving God.

But Micah pulls off the outer dolls to reveal true reality - the reality that the nation was in rebellion against God's justice. And such was the rebellion that the consequences would be dire. Jerusalem itself would ultimately "become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets."

Such a vision of all held dear collapsing pointed to the extremity of the times. And yet political and religious leaders buried their heads to the realities around them. Religion continued to be but a form of escapism and so both Northern and Southern Kingdoms proceded to sleep walk into disaster and destruction as Micah had warned they would do.

Micah serves as a reminder of the dangers of religious escapism. True religion cannot ignore the world in which it is set. Today we cannot escape into a holy huddle if we wish to remain either faithful or relevant. Our world for all its great scientific advances is divided sharply into haves and have nots both globally and locally. Our failures to engage adequately with those who are other than ourselves leave us distant from so much of humanity. Religious divides have too often become a source of conflict rather than of fruitful relationship building. And today just as at the time of Micah and indeed Jesus, we leave people on the outside even though they are as much the children of God as we are. Like the people of Micah's time we need to be reminded that true religion is not so much rites and ceremonies as it is about justice and loving kindness.

Jesus is also into the business of removing the masks we wear. Our gospel reading shows him engaged in controversy with the Pharisees. His critique is that these people who sought to obey the Law have in fact got things badly wrong. Oh they know all about the observances to the extent that they make something of a show of them. And indeed they have reached the point that the observances bring not so much honour to God as to themselves. The places of honour is where they want to be - indeed in terms of the synagogue by where the scrolls were, in the place that granted authority to teach.
Jesus suggests that they have got things badly wrong. Their religion has led them to personal ambition and to climbing the greasy pole. and in this they have forgotten the true path of God's people which is not about seeking rank but is about service to others. This is the path of humility in which exaltation is found not in ruling the roost but in humbly serving the needs of others.

Here Jesus teaches us about being. He shows the inner transformation that each of us is in need of for true religion sets us not on a course of domination but on a course of humble service even to those whom the world counts but very lowly.

This morning we gather to meet our Lord. We come knowing our shortcomings and our need of our God. We have no rights over our God. And yet as we come in humility open to personal transformation and longing to serve God in our world, we find a generous welcome. At this table where we are fed, we find the acceptance of God who in Jesus has shown us what loving kindness is all about. He has humbled himself for us. He has given his all for us. And now through the tokens before us we are offered his risen life that we might live for him day by day at home and in the world to his praise and glory with the masks removed.