A sermon preached by Canon Dr Chris Sugden at Christ Church, Virginia Water, Sunday 13th October 2013
Category Archives: Theology
Sexual Ethics in the 21st Century: Canon Dr Chris Sugden
Does the Church have anything useful to say on this controversial topic? Canon Dr Chris Sugden is an ordained minister of the Church of England. After an assistant pastorship in Leeds, where he also worked in the BBC, Chris and his wife, Elaine, spent 6 years with their children in India. In 1983 they returned to England and helped establish the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. (OCMS).
He is Executive Secretary of Anglican Mainstream, a network of evangelical and orthodox networks in the United Kingdom, which is part of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) and Global Anglican Future (GAFCON).
Harvest: Investing our Talents for Jesus
Why do we celebrate Harvest Festival? To thank God for our food and drink. How do we thank God? We thank God by sharing our food and drink with others in need. Like the Food Bank. We also remember that God has given us our gifts and talents to share with one another – like Tools with a Mission. Who do you want to be when you grow up? Jesus told this story to help us realise that you’ve got talent! God has invested in us. He has entrusted us with gifts and talents. He wants us to develop them to serve. He wants a return on his investment. God has made each one of us unique. He has given each of us gifts and talents, and skills and passions. How can we find out what talents God has given us?Ask these questions:
- What am I good at? (Skills)
- What makes me sad? (Concerns)
- What do I like doing? (Passion)
- If I could do anything, what would it be? (Vision)
- What has God told us all to do? (Responsibility).
Keep asking these questions and
as you grow up, your role will become clearer. Allow your passion to become your purpose and one day it will become your profession. But it’s not just about discovering my talents. It’s also about discovering how to use them. I can use my talents to make lots of money for myself or I can invest them for the benefit of others. I can use my abilities to hurt people or to heal people. I can use my talents to build up or tear down. I can use my talents for myself or for God. This glove represents my life or your life. When we try and use our talents for ourselves this is what happens (blow the glove up) – we are just full of hot air and soon wear other people out.
But when we realise we are servants of the King and invite Jesus to live in us, He breathes his life in us so he can use our talents and gifts for his glory. That is why we must daily be filled with His Spirit.
Have you ever watched the programme on TV called The Dragons’ Den? To help you apply Jesus story and discover God’s plan for your life, I’d like to make an investment in you. As long as your parents agree,
I would like to invest in you by giving you some shoe polish, a cloth and a glove. I’d like you to clean your shoes and the shoes of your family, and maybe of people who come to your house. Please don’t ask for money but if people offer to give you some, say ‘thank you’ and explain it is going to help people in Syria who are suffering. Like the man in Jesus story,
I am going away for a month, but when I come back, I expect you to return my investment in you, hopefully with interest. Please bring back the polish and any money to the Christ Church December Family Service. We will then give any money raised to help people suffering in Syria.
And when you clean the shoes, put the glove on. It will remind yourself that you are doing it for Jesus and need his help to do it for the right reasons. It will also keep you clean.
Now this is not a competition to see how much you can make with your talent. What matters is that we are thankful for the talents God has given us and we use them with a servant heart.
The Parable of the Dragons’ Den
There are many ways people differ. Bill Hybels observes there are cat people and there are dog people. There are tennis people and there are golf people.
Some people like to sleep with the windows open and some people prefer to sleep with the windows closed – and they are usually married to each other. Some people keep a pen and notepad by the telephone while other people just have children. There are breakfast people and there are people who don’t remember what breakfast is. There are A type people and there are the rest of you. There are Tigger people and there are Eyore people.
There are blue sky optimist people and there are chicken little – sky falling in people. And every team has at least one of each. When it comes to finances, some are cheque book people and some are cash people. There are Windsor farm shop – John Lewis – Waitrose people and there are Staines market – Poundland people. There are carefully balanced every month cheque book people and there are shut the cheque account down every two years and start over people. And you know who you are. There are people with stock brokers and there are people perfectly capable of going broke without them.
We were all brought up differently. But we all have one thing in common. We have a range of assets, talents and skills that we can invest or waste, use or lose.
In Luke 19 Jesus told a parable – I’ve called it the Parable of the Dragons’ Den, because whether you love or hate the programme, the fact is God has invested significant assets in you and he expects a return on his investment. I invite you to turn to Luke 19 with me.
This is a most unusual parable because it’s the only parable, as far as we know, Jesus told that was based on an actual historical event. What historical event lay behind this parable and why tell it at this moment? The answer lies in our first observation:
The Blessed Hope and the Marshmallow Test
Walter Mischel was a psychologist working with children on the campus of Stamford University in the 1960’s. In one experiement, he told the children in the pre-school that they could have a single treat, such as a marshmallow, right now. However, if they would wait while the experimenter ran an errand, they could have two marshmallows. Some pre-schoolers grabbed the marshmallow immediately, but others were able to wait what, for them, must have seemed an endless 20 minutes. To sustain themselves in their struggle, they covered their eyes so they wouldn’t see the temptation, rested their heads on their arms, talked to themselves, sang, even tried to sleep. These plucky kids got the two-marshmallow reward. The interesting part of this experiment came in the follow-up. The children who as 4-year-olds had been able to wait for the two marshmallows were, as adolescents, still able to delay gratification in pursuing their goals. They were more socially competent and self-assertive, and better able to cope with life’s frustrations. In contrast, the children who grabbed the one marshmallow were, as adolescents, more likely to be stubborn, indecisive, and stressed. Nature or nurture? It really doesn’t matter. Walter Mischel forgot to factor in one further dimension – the supernatural one. God can and does transform us supernaturally. That was one reason the Apostle Paul wrote this short letter to Titus.
Jesus and Amos – Jacob’s Fallen Tent
I know it’s only September, but it’s never too soon to start thinking of Christmas is it? Remember Charles Dickens’ play, A Christmas Carol? It’s the story of how Ebenezer Scrooge tried to deny a Christmas break to his staff. On Christmas Eve, late at night, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts that night—the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas future. He sees himself as he really is. He sees the love and kindness of those he has mistreated. He sees the consequences of his wicked life. He wakes up on Christmas morning a changed man. In our passage today we see where Dickens might have got his inspiration. God instructed Amos to preach a lament for the dead, except the people were still very much alive. A lament is a poem of mourning over the death of a loved one. The most obvious example in the Bible is the book of Lamentations where Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem as they are carried off into captivity. But in Amos, God laments Israel as if they had already died.
Israel was a prosperous country. The economy was booming. The military was strong. They had never had it so good. And here comes this poor, working class outsider, lamenting their death. They probably reacted the same way Scrooge reacted to Marley the first time. This lament is a good example of Hebrew poetry. God seems to love poetry because Scripture is full of it. This particular poem was written with a common Hebrew form called a chiastic structure. Don’t get hung up on the term. Just put an A next to verses 1-3 and another A next to verses 16-17. Put a B next to verses 5-6 and another B next to verses 14-15. Put a C next to verse 7 and a C next to verses 10-13. Finally put a D next to verses 8-9. This is called a chiasm. The first and last are parallel. The next two are parallel, etc. The beauty of a chiasm is that it was written that way to put all the focus of the poem on the middle. Imagine an Oreo cookie and the way the two biscuit halves sandwich the most important crème filling in the middle. Here’s the outline.
1. Destruction is coming (5:1-3; 16-17)
2. Hope is waiting (5:4-6; 14-15)
3. Evil is abounding (5:7; 10-13)
4. God is reigning (5:8-9)
Silver Surfing Down to the Good News Cafe
I was on the London underground recently. A strange thing happened to me. It was very embarrassing. It was the first time it has ever happened in my life. It took me completely by surprise. I didn’t know how to handle it. I was standing by the door as I usually do when out of the blue, a young Asian man got up out of his seat and offered it to me. I thought he had made a mistake. I embarrassed him as much as myself by refusing to sit in his place. So we both stood and looked pretty silly. It had not occurred to me that I looked like an elderly man. I smiled and thanked him. I suppose my real mistake was not colouring my hair when the first grey hairs began to appear. Now it is too late. You would notice, and in any case I’ve been overruled at home.
You can mask the signs of aging and you can even lie about your age, but there are always consequences. I had an elderly couple come to see me recently asking me to sign a new marriage certificate for them. One of them had lied about their age 40 years ago in order to get married. Now 40 years later it had created complications. Their pension was being queried. So the marriage certificate had to be amended to match their birth certificate.
This Summer I turned 60. It was a significant moment receiving my Senior’s Railpass.
I feel like a little boy again. Oliver Wendell Holmes said “People do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” And that’s the challenge, managing the tension and sometimes the aches and pains between how we feel on the inside and what we can do on the outside. Mark Twain once said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Success truly knows no boundaries. Many people have achieved their dreams much later life. I was a slow developer at school, but do you know how old Harlan Sanders was when he opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant? 65. How old was Ronald Reagan when he became President of the United States? 16 days before his 70th birthday. How old was Golda Meir when she became Prime Minister of Israel? 70. How old was Nelson Mandela when he became President of South Africa? 74.
How old do you have to be to start living? That is your choice. The older I get, the more I want to get out of life. The greater the impact I want to have. Retire and play it safe? No! I want to live more dangerously, take more risks, learn new things, and make every day count.
I may be wearing out but I am not giving up. Hardening of the viewpoints is far more lethal than hardening of the arteries.
That is why I am really excited that the new Good News Café for Seniors (or Silver Surfers if you prefer) open every Thursday afternoon and not just monthly. We aim to host a growing number of events and activities that you want and that will motivate you to get the most out of the wonderful gift of life the Good Lord has given you. Every day is a gift from God. A new beginning. An exciting adventure, knowing we were created with meaning and with purpose. God’s plan? To know God, and serve him and enjoy him forever and ever. The Apostle Paul wrote about this,
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
May God bless you and those you love.
Joel and the Day of the Lord
This week the Independent newspaper reports, “A man has been bitten in his sleep by Britain’s most poisonous spider as hordes of the arachnid are reported to have invaded parts of London and Kent due to climate change. Dubbed the “British black widow”, the deadly false widow spider, which is about the size of a 50 pence piece, unleashes venom and can kill those who are allergic to it. However, it will only attack if provoked. The false widow spider has also been sighted in Orpington and in Greenwich, where one victim was 29-year-old glazier Paul Lakeman, who felt something on his shoulder as he lay down to sleep. “I was in bed with the light off,” … instinctively I threw it off onto the floor. “I heard the spider hit the floor and I looked at it – it looked like it meant business.” The false widow spider first came to the UK over 100 years ago in crates of fruit from the Canary Islands. Climate change seems to have caused the population to spread across the South East and they are heading for Virginia Water.
Now I know a cluster of false widow spiders in Greenwich hardly compares with the plague of locusts mentioned in Joel chapter 1. But if we lived in Greenwich and our home was infested with them, you might think otherwise. And that is because the way we read Scripture is shaped by our circumstances.
Clare Short on Anti-Semitism
Dear Bishop Christopher,
I have read with great sadness the complaint which came to you through the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Stephen’s response. I am afraid there is a pattern across many sectors of society of mobilising such complaints against people who criticise Israeli policy. I believe this to be a very misguided policy, the history of anti semitism, particularly in Europe, has caused enormous evil, persecution and suffering, but to accuse anyone who is critical of Israeli policy, anti Semitic belittles the profound significance of anti semitism. It is also being misused so widely that the accusation no longer has the power, a well informed accusation of anti semitism should have.
I have met Stephen at a variety of meetings and conferences and have read his most important work on Christian Zionism. I hope that you have read it. This movement is very powerful in the US and is I think gaining ground in the UK. It is a complete distortion of the teachings of Christianity and is used to justify persecution, oppression and grave breaches of international law inflicted on the Palestinian people, including the Palestinian Christians who have been practising their religion in the Holy Land since Jesus moved amongst the places in which they live. Stephen’s work in seeking peace and justice for all the people of the Holy Land follows Jesus’s teachings on the blessedness of peacemakers.
Stephen is not in the least way anti Semitic. This is a disgraceful and completely false allegation and those who have made it should be held to account for their wickedness. I hope you don’t mind me saying that you have made a serious mistake in letting this complaint run on for so long and thus letting the impression be given that there is any substance whatever to this complaint. It has also wasted a lot of time and effort that should have been devoted to more important work. I would like to suggest that you consider looking at whether a case has been made and then dismissing this nonsense.
Part of the evil that is being done through this complaint, and similar complaints against others, is to frighten people from speaking out against the terrible injustices being inflicted on the Palestinian people. These complaints help to generate fear that similar hurtful and damaging allegations will be made against anyone who seeks to expose the grave breaches of international law being justified by Christian Zionists and those Israelis who favour Israel expanding its control over the whole of historical Palestine and therefore oppressing the whole Palestinian people causing terrible injustice and suffering. In addition, these policies have helped to destabilise the wider Middle East and I am afraid in the long term will endanger Israel itself, as many wise Israelis have argued.
I hope you will be able to use the best of your wisdom and live up to the best of Christian values in handling this complaint from now on. I would be happy to arrange to meet with you to discuss the whole situation if you would find this helpful.
Best Wishes
Clare Short
Hosea and Jesus the Bridegroom
The story of Hosea and Gomer sounds like an episode right out of the Jerry Springer show. “The Vicar Who Married a Prostitute.” The sub-text could have been: “Clergyman’s wife cheats on him. Her children are fathered by three different men. Sold as a sex-slave, her long suffering husband buys her back.” With Gomer looking down at the floor in shame, Jerry asks “Why did you do it Hosea?” as the studio audience jeers. “I knew she would be unfaithful but God told me to marry her anyway, love her enough to let her go, buy her back, forgive her and show how much I love her.” If it happened today it would make the Sunday front pages, wouldn’t it? Hosea was a young preacher in the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom. He was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah and Amos. He lived, as we are told in the first verse, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (kings of Judah), and during the reign of Jeroboam, the king of Israel. But where Hosea stands out is that instead of delivering his message verbally, he was to deliver it visibly, quite dramatically through his marriage, through his wife and even through the choice of names for his children.
You know the book of Hosea is probably the most shocking book in the whole of the Old Testament. Not because of what Hosea went through, but because it reveals what God has gone through, for us. And here’s the clue for how Hosea fits in this series ‘Christ in all the Scriptures’. The name Hosea is related to Joshua or Yeshua, which means “salvation.” The parallels between Hosea and Jesus – are remarkable. There are in fact multiple parallels between the lives of Hosea and Jesus.