Wednesday Mass 10 am

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St Johns Soldiers Hill 10 April 2013 Texts: Acts 5:17-26 John 3:14-21 One of the interesting things about being a clergyperson is that at social events you become a focus, or personification, of the church for people. This happens in lots of situationsat dinner parties in peoples houses, or at wedding receptions, or even at wakes after a funeral. Because I have learnt by experience that this is coming, I often play coy. If Im in my dog collar there is no escape, but otherwise when people ask me what I do, I say, nothing much. That sometimes satisfies. If not, then I expand, cryptically, I work with people. Eventually the persistent questioner gets out of me that I am a priest, and then it starts to flow. Sometimes, the person has been wounded in some way by the church in the past, refused baptism, let down in a time of need, or driven out of a parish, say, after a divorce. Then I simply take it on the nose, trying to soak up the pain, and hoping that telling someone off will lead in time to a healing of some kind. Thats fair enough, and part of what it means to be seen as a mediator between God and Gods people, taking the bad things with the good. Often, however, something more amusing, but no less interesting happens. It begins with a florid apology of some kind, Sadly, I dont get to church very often, Youre the vicar! Isnt it terrible that I have never seen you at your church, or the ever popular, I am a very spiritual person, you know, but Im not very religious. Then the confession starts. All sorts of things come outsins, real and imagined, self-justifications, spoken with varying amounts of conviction, attempts to procure my approval for certain moral choices, a great welling up the human spirit, an inarticulate groping after something they cannot name. I take this to be an example of what our gospel reading is talking about today. Jesus tells us that, those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (3.18) And he continues, all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God (3.20-21). In John, people judge themselves. Those who dont believe are condemned already, already now, not in some judgment to come. The Holy Spirit moves about on the face of the earth, in the hearts of people, and by their response to it, men and women judge themselves. Elsewhere in scripture, God is portrayed as the judge. But John, often called the great theologian, doesnt objectify. It doesnt happen up there, but in here. Two important things flow from this. First, the responsibility for our

actions falls to us. We might prefer to think that God will judge us, or history will judge us, or the Spirit of the times, or our friends. But in truth we bear the responsibility for judging ourselves. We know in our hearts, through the gift of the spirit, whether what we are doing is right or wrong, in step with Gods will for us, or not. These people who approach me to unload know this too. They may not be theologically articulate, or even very self-reflectively aware, but they come seeking confirmation of their good deeds, and a kind of absolution for what they already know to be bad. Secondly, since we are well able to judge ourselves, we should be wary of the dubious delight we derive from judging others, especially when we remember that this judging is performed not for their benefit, but to convince us of our own superiority. One of my favourite writers, Jeremy Taylor, who was seventeenth century Church of England bishop and thinker, wrote one of the shrewdest books on being a Christian, called The Rules and Exercises for Holy Living and Holy Dying. the last 350 years. In it, he has this to say, Every man hath in his own life sins enough, in his own mind trouble enough, in his own fortune evils enough, and in the performance of his offices failings more than enough, to entertain his own enquiry; so that curiosity after the sins of others cannot be without envy and an evil mind. What is it to me, if my neighbours wife were a Syrian, or his grandmother illegitimate; or that another is indebted five thousand pounds, or whether his wife be expensive? But commonly curious persons (or, as the apostles phrase is) busy-bodies are not solicitous or inquisitive into the beauty and order of a well-governed family, or after the virtues of an excellent person; but if there be anything for which men keep locks and bars, and porters, things that blush to see the light, and either are shameful in manners or private in nature, these things are their care and their business. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living, Sect. II Every week the press, print and electronic, provides ample demonstration of the truth of this. They are full of what Taylor calls things that blush to see the light, and either are shameful in manners or private in nature. Should this not impress, we have the knowledge of our own private thoughts to fall back on. If you are ever identified as a church-goer at a party, you may have experienced spontaneous confessions similar to the ones I hear. In midst of all this, let us pray for the discipline to concern ourselves with our own sin, for the courage, when confronted by the sins of others, to express in word and action the forgiveness which comes from God, and for the grace to understand ever more deeply the promptings of our own hearts.
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interesting example of how while much has changed in the church, much has stayed the same over