C Gloucester Cathedral Evensong
Sunday 10th May 2015 3.00 p.m.
It was a great pleasure to be invited to preach at Evensong at the Cathedral, but the brief was a challenging one --eight minutes, including the Prayers of Intercession.
The Cathedral is notoriously difficult to speak in, with a very long echo. I timed the sermon at 7.5 minutes. In the end it came out at 9 minutes exactly.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When I was about thirteen we
had an elderly and rather eccentric Chemistry Master at School. He knew nothing
of Health and Safety, and knew how to get the attention of teenage boys. His
favourite trick, as we cowered expectantly in the background, was to throw a
very large chunk of potassium into a double lab sink full to the brim with
water. It spat, it flared, it raced around the surface until it expired with a
great flash and a puff of smoke. I shall never forget that potent combination
of fire and water.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither
can the flood drown it.
[Song of Solomon 8.7a]
Those words from the Song of
Solomon speak of a love which flames and rages like fire, even when doused with
water.
It contracts dramatically
with the Christians of Laodicea, who are characterised as ‘lukewarm’—whose
passion has long been quenched, and have enthusiasm for nothing.
A Hebrew love poem, full of
lush and erotic imagery, seems rather out of place in the Bible. Those who put
it there—and it was controversial—saw beyond human love to the love of God for
his people. It reminded them powerfully that faith is not simply a matter of
the intellect, but of the heart and of the will.
Like most love stories, our
relationship with God is a journey. There are times when our love for God is
blazing, others when it is dogged and persistent; sometimes, in our sinfulness,
it is lukewarm.
This allegorical
interpretation of the Song of Songs also reminds me that, as well as being a
lover, in this relationship I am also loved. The love of God for me cannot be
quenched. God does not look down at me with dispassionate interest, as I
sometimes observe the ants scurrying about my patio.
God’s love for me, shown in
the death of Jesus, is mirrored in these words from the Song of Solomon:
Love is strong as
death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
[Song of Solomon 8:6b]
Sometimes I glimpse the
reality of that, more often I scurry on about my own business blind to God’s
sorrow at my lukewarmness.
Bishop Alan Chesters often quoted
some words he heard from a Christian politician at a Labour Party Conference in
Blackpool.
“Love makes you feel good, love makes you strong, love makes
you do things you wouldn’t do.”
It is not enough to bask,
from time to time, in the warm glow of being loved. Love demands a response.
When I get even a glimpse of
how much God loves me I feel good, but I am also empowered.
My love for God, however, is
not merely a one to one thing.
A lawyer sought to distil
the essence of the love of God out of the tangle of the 631 commandments in the
Torah. He asked Jesus for his opinion. Jesus gave him this answer:
You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength.
[Mark 12:30]
Heart, soul, mind and strength—that is passionate love. That is love without
reservations, love which gives its all.
But he added a second clause
You shall love
your neighbour as yourself.
[Mark 12.31a]
When I love God, I am
empowered to love others, and to put that love into practice in a broken and
hurting world which yearns for warmth, gentleness and healing.
May God’s love,
blazing in a
distracted and lukewarm heart,
give me, and
each of us,
the strength and the courage
to do it!
Amen.
Let us pray
As
Christian Aid week begins we pray for all helped by Christian Aid, and for all
its staff and supporters, locally, and throughout the world.
|
G
|
od of reconciliation and grace, you promise us a world where all is new, where
love is born when hope is gone, where broken relationships are restored to
wholeness. May we live as people who know your story of love, and may we have
the vision to imagine what could be possible if we dared to live this story. God
of abundant life, may we be witnesses of love, hope and peace, and co-creators
of your life in the world. Amen
We remember
the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and pray for those
who still remember it, and those who fight today to keep our country free.
|
O
|
Almighty God, grant,
we beseech thee, that we who do honour to the memory of those who have died in
the service of their country and of the Crown, may be so inspired by the spirit
of their love and fortitude that, forgetting all selfish and unworthy motives,
we may live only to thy glory and to the service of humankind through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen
We pray for
God’s love to be rekindled in all our hearts
|
O
|
God, the God of all
goodness and grace, who art worthy of a greater love than we can either give or
understand, fill our hearts we beseech thee with such love towards thee, that
nothing may seem too hard for us to do or to suffer in obedience to thy will;
and grant that thus loving thee, we may become more daily like unto thee, and
finally obtain the crown of life which thou hast promised to those that love
thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all evermore. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment