I wonder if you remember the character of Uriah Heep in David Copperfield, written by Charles Dickens. He epitomises the sort of insincere humility that could really annoy other people. Humility is a virtue to be cultivated by Christians. It was demonstrated by Jesus when he washed his disciples’ feet. The kind of humility expected is not at all like that of Uriah Heep but is sincere and is not secretly self-seeking as Uriah was.

To learn more read on. What follows is the reflection from the 2pm SLT service on Tuesday. The readings were Psalm 37:3-5, 30-32, Titus 2:1-8, 11-14, Luke 17:7-10.

When reading the gospel passage for today, my mind took me back to Sunday afternoons in my childhood and teens. Something that many families looked forward to each Sunday was the BBC’s dramatization of famous novels. It’s the Dickens ones which stick in my memory so I cannot be sure if there were other authors featured. I feel sure there must have been.

Watching week in and week out became a tradition as we followed the fortunes of Oliver Twist, visited the Old Curiosity Shop, and grew up with David Copperfield. It’s the latter which particularly sprang to mind today. I can still see the actor who played Uriah Heep wringing his hands and talking about being ‘umble’. For those of you who don’t know this character or have not read about him for some time, here is a taste of what he was like as David talks to him one evening:

“I suppose you are quite a great lawyer?” I said, after looking at him for some time.
“Me, Master Copperfield?” said Uriah. “Oh no! I’m a very umble person.”

It was no fancy of mine about his hands, I observed; for he frequently ground the palms against each other as if to squeeze them dry and warm, besides often wiping them, in a stealthy way, on his pocket-handkerchief.

“I am well aware that I am the umblest person going,” said Uriah Heep, modestly; “let the other be where he may. My mother is likewise a very umble person. We live in a numble abode, Master Copperfield, but have much to be thankful for. My father’s former calling was umble. He was a sexton.”

“What is he now?” I asked.

“He’s a partaker of glory at present, Master Copperfield,” said Uriah Heep. “But we have much to be thankful for. How much have I to be thankful for in living with Mr. Wickfield!”

“Perhaps you’ll be a partner in Mr. Wickfield’s business, one of these days,” I said, to make myself agreeable; “and it will be Wickfield and Heep, or Heep late Wickfield.”

“Oh no, Master Copperfield,” returned Uriah, shaking his head, “I am much too umble for that!”

Uriah Heep epitomizes obsequiousness. He oozes insincerity. All the time he was protesting at how very ‘umble’ he was, too ‘umble’ to even consider ever becoming a partner of his employer, the lawyer Mr Wickfield, Heep was studying law at night and blackmails Mr Wickfield in order to gain control over the business. He managed to get himself made a partner in the business and then began to work towards marrying Mr Wickfield’s daughter Agnes in order to gain control over the family fortune. Eventually he is found out and sentenced to be deported to Australia for his misdeeds.

Uriah Heep’s protestations of being so very ‘umble’ were insincere. Had he been truly humble there would have been no need to tell everyone. It would have been obvious. Really Uriah is full of ambition and greed. He longs to get even after the way he was treated as a child, believing he is owed a better life, and uses his every spare moment to further his ambition.

In the Gospel passage Jesus commends humility of a very different nature. We are to look on ourselves as servants of God who have done only what was expected of us. It is nothing to boast about and we are certainly not owed anything by God for our faith or our good works or for avoiding sin which is our duty. Obedience to God is our duty, we are not doing him any favours which leave him in our debt in any way. Jesus demonstrated true humility by washing his disciples’ feet and we are to emulate him.

Jesus explains what we are to be like and Paul gives details of a practical nature. In the present, we are to live godly lives. Those who are of an age or position in life where others may look up to them or emulate them must be sure that they are a good example to others. They must help younger believers to see how life is to be lived to honour God. By acting consistently with our beliefs, we earn the right to be listened to as we try to help others to live in the right way. We must be make sure that what we say is carefully considered rather than impulsive or unreasonable as that will only lead to arguments. Arguments are not going to help people to find the truth of the Gospel. We should make a point of listening to others with care and respect.

Currently we are looking to expand the Leadership Team of this ministry. Those who join the Team will need to heed Paul’s advice as Titus needed to. Being in a position of leadership brings with it responsibilities and some restriction of freedoms. We are looked on as representing an Anglican Church and must be careful what unspoken message we convey. We must try to make sure that nothing we do brings the Gospel into disrepute. Instead our lives must be attractive to others so that we illustrate the attractiveness of the Gospel.

The reason we can live this kind of life is the grace of God. We have power given to us by Jesus who died to rescue us from sin and from the way sin once controlled our lives. God instructs and trains us to live this new way. It may not be easy but as Paul points out, we are living with a blessed hope, the hope of Christ’s return. By setting our minds on this we are impelled to live lives of holiness.

In the past Jesus sacrificed himself to redeem us from our slavery to sin. We were unable to do that for ourselves, helpless to help ourselves in any way. Not only were we saved from sin, but we were brought into a life of purity. If we choose not to live godly lives we are effectively despising the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

Jesus has made us a special people, a prized, treasured possession; a people are who are ‘zealous for good deeds’. Living in a godly manner is part of the DNA of the people of God. Our motivation should come from the fact that we are so very special to Jesus. We can hardly claim that we are redeemed and then not show any evidence of being transformed by that redemption. It’s our behaviour that points to the truth of what Christ has done for us and in turn points others to our Lord.

Humility is what Jesus demonstrated and what he expects of us. Let’s not do humility Uriah Heep’s way, with wringing of hands and protestations of our ‘umble’ station in life. Let’s say as we are instructed and mean it from the heart:

“We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”

In many parts of the world, this weekend has been one to remember those who have fallen in war. Perhaps part of the challenge and the opportunity of being church in Second Life is that our traditions are not all the same in our real life churches and nations. Celebrating Remembrance Sunday might have seemed odd to some for whom this is not their normal tradition. However, people from around the world attended and read at the two Remembrance services which we held, one at 10pm SLT on Saturday for the Pacific Rim (and insomniacs elsewhere!) and one at noon SLT on Sunday for the UK, Europe and America. Many took the opportunity to wear a poppy on their lapel and to light a candle as a sign of their response to the sacrifice of many for our sakes. However unusual the service might have been for some, comments suggested that it spoke to many of those there in a very personal way and gave them food for thought. There is definitely value in sharing and learning from the traditions of others.

The readings were Psalm 62:5-end, Hebrews 9:24-end, Mark 1:14-20. The reflection follows.

On November 11th 2008 the 90th anniversary of the ending of the First World War, The Great War, was marked. Present at the ceremony taking place at the Cenotaph in London were three veterans, the last surviving from that war. Their combined ages totalled 330 years.

The leader of the group was Henry Allingham, Britain’s oldest man at the time, aged 112. He was an aircraft mechanic who was in action at sea in the Battle of Jutland and also on land on the Western Front. Being an international church here at Epiphany, it’s interesting to note that Henry completed his training in Sheerness with 14 others who included two Australians, a New Zealander and an American.

Harry Patch, aged 110, was a survivor of Passchendaele, a battle which claimed the lives of 70,000 men. He and Henry Allingham both had experience of the trenches. The third was Bill Stone, aged 108, who fought for the Royal Navy in both World War I and World War II.

It’s estimated that 20 million people died in the First World War, 9.7 million of them being young servicemen. The staggering loss of life led many to believe that the Great War of 1914-18 should be ‘the war to end all wars’. Sadly, many who fought in it saw the next generation of young people plunged into war again only 20 years later.

Henry, Harry and Bill have all died in the year since that special anniversary was marked. Harry Patch was the last to die, on 25th July this year, just a week after Henry Allingham. They were our last link in Britain to the first hand memories of that war, the last people who were able to really know what it was like, though there are still a handful of survivors in the world as a whole. The author Max Arthur, who wrote a book in 2005 called ‘Last Post’ which documented the words of the last 21 survivors of the war, said, “Now there is no one alive who has seen what Harry saw in the trenches. Harry said it was just the most depressing place on earth, hell with a lid on.”

Despite living such extraordinarily long lives, Henry, Harry and Bill didn’t see the end of war in the world. Those who study such things say that war has existed between people groups since around 4000 BC. From 2925 BC there has been nearly continuous conflict in the world. For just 26 days since the Second World War ended in 1945, there has been no war. In the 20th Century alone over 100 million deaths were attributed to war. Harry Patch believed that war was “organised murder”. He said, “It was not worth it. It was not worth one, let alone all the millions.”

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the statistics and the apparent inevitability of war. What can we, ordinary individuals, do in the face of such facts? First of all we can do what Henry Allingham wished. He said, “I hope people realise what my pals sacrificed on their behalf. May they never be forgotten.” We remember in part by wearing poppies. Cady has gathered some fascinating information about why the poppy is used on these occasions, and it’s a truly international story. If you want all the details there are notecards under the wreath to my right or with the box of poppies at the back of the Cathedral.

Briefly, poppies grow on disturbed land in Western Europe. Where the Napoleonic wars in the early 19th century disturbed the earth, soon there were fields of blood red poppies growing where soldiers had fallen. The same fields were disturbed in late 1914 in Northern France and Flanders and became covered with poppies when the war ended. A Canadian surgeon, John McCrae, realised how significant the poppy was as a memorial to those who had fallen in war. He wrote the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ which inspired others to use the poppy as a symbol of the sacrifice of people in conflicts.

We as Christians are familiar with a symbol of sacrifice in the cross of Jesus. As we are told in our reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus ‘has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself’. Many of us wear that symbol both here and in RL to show that we are Christians, that we remember what Jesus did for us. Jesus understood sacrifice; he understands what those who have fought in war have done in sacrificing themselves for others. Jesus is recorded as saying, ‘Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ Both the poppy and the cross are great symbols of sacrifice.

Sacrifice deserves a response. Remembering is not enough. We need to change as people and work to change our society so that it becomes more and more like the Kingdom of God, so that peace is a reality and not just a nice ideal. The peace we’re aiming for is not just the absence of war; it’s shalom – health, wholeness, well being. The peace that Jesus brings is not like that which the world looks to provide; it’s an altogether greater concept.

I’ve just left a company after 16 years. There are many reasons why it now seems the right thing to do. One is their vision. The company provides maths and English materials for after-school education for children. They believe that education is the route to world peace. I believe passionately that every child deserves a good education but I do not believe that in providing that I am necessarily helping to usher in a golden age of world peace. Some of the best educated people have been cruel dictators, bringing anything but peace to their own people and others. Peace will come about as a result of a change of heart, not an improvement of the mind.

Each of us needs to answer the call of Jesus to follow him, just as he called his first disciples. In following they became transformed from simple fishermen to a group of empowered men who changed the world. They learnt from Jesus and in turn they passed on what they learnt to others, how to live counter-culturally, to dare to challenge the way things have always been done, the beliefs that have always been held. They dared to be different, as Jesus was, and in the process they made the world a better place. We too can experience a similar transformation and play our part in transforming the world.

An integral part of our Christian faith is hope. As the psalmist says: ‘God spoke once, and twice have I heard the same, that power belongs to God’. However powerless we may feel to change things, to even change ourselves, we can know that God is in charge and has the power necessary to bring about change. One day God will recreate the world and we too will be made new. Meanwhile let’s take to heart what Vice Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly (aged 89) had to say in the online archive, WW2 People’s War:

“They gave their all that we might live in freedom and liberty, but as long as there is hunger, poverty, disease, corruption, hatred, warfare, lies, spin and despair, the debt we owe them is not being repaid. The freedom and liberty they entailed to us is being betrayed. They gave their lives and they were so young, most of them.

Surely those names on our war memorial are speaking to us in the words of the poet:
Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure is nothing much to lose:
But young men think it is, and we were young.”

‘WW2 People’s War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.

It’s possible to see the wonders of creation and acknowledge the existence of a Creator. The vastness of creation and the mystery of God can make us feel small and insignificant. We may find that we hold God at arm’s length as a result. However, Christians believe that God is a personal God and that in order to relate to us with understanding, he came in the person of Jesus Christ to live a human life and to die for us. The fact that God cares for each one of us so much that he is prepared to seek us out  is staggering but true.

The readings at the 2pm SLT service on Thursday were Psalm 8, Romans 14:7-12, Luke 15:1-10.

I woke this morning to a glorious day. As I looked out of my study window I could see blue sky with a moon shining in it. The sun was lighting up the golden leaves on the cherry trees. It was possible to really appreciate the beauty of creation, to understand why God looked at what he had made and declared it ‘good’.

Of course, humans were put in charge of the created world and commanded to tend it, but we really haven’t done a very good job. Maybe now we are beginning to wake up to what’s going on, but for centuries we have exploited creation without a thought given to the consequences. We have taken what we can for our own use and in the process have polluted the planet. Tragedies like the chemical waste at Bhopal in India, which is still causing misery to the inhabitants, and the death of endless sea life due to plastic waste, are some of the results of our profligate lifestyle, in the developed nations at least.

Another form of pollution is light pollution. Our cities and towns are a blaze of light when darkness falls. Light brings more safety for those moving around but it burns precious resources in order to create the electricity. Another effect is that we can no longer see the night sky well if we live in an urban area. Amateur astronomers complain about the difficulties caused by light pollution, but even if we are not interested in astronomy we are impoverished by this, perhaps without realising it. I remember one occasion when a group of families from our church went camping in the Derbyshire countryside. It was spring time so darkness came fairly early. It was a clear night, no clouds in the sky. One of our number is interested in astronomy and she started to point out various constellations and the Milky Way to the children there. Soon we all, adults and children alike, were staring at the sky. Without street lighting around it was ablaze with the light of stars. Every so often we saw a meteor shoot across the sky. It was so very beautiful and awe inspiring.

I wonder if you have stood and looked up into a starlit sky when you’ve been in the countryside. The vastness of the universe and the smallness of a single human being in it really hits home when you do that. I’m sure that David must have done the same many times as he watched over the sheep. He would have no problem with light pollution; at night, inky darkness was the norm. When we listen to Psalm 8 we can hear about his experience:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have ordained,
What are mortals, that you should be mindful of them;
mere human beings, that you should seek them out?

David was amazed that, in a universe of millions of stars, God cared about puny human beings. It is incredible but true that God cares for us. Although it’s good to be able to acknowledge this and comforting to know that the Creator cares, it is possible to hold God at arm’s length due to the sheer immensity of him. We can acquiesce to the concept of a loving God, but if we call him King, Lord, and Creator – big concepts full of majesty and awe – it can be a way of maintaining our distance from him.

God has made sure that we can understand his love for each of us as an individual, not just for humans as a group. He chose to come to earth as a human being in the person of Jesus. God and humanity are forever linked because of that. No wonder the Jews found Jesus puzzling. He challenged their notion of God and gave it a personal touch. When Jesus told his parable about the lost sheep, he showed that the individual person is of huge value to God. The owner of a flock would count his wealth in terms of how many sheep he had. Losing one would be like losing money from the bank for us today. If God loses one of us, he has lost something of very great value and the effort needed to find each one again is well worthwhile. Just as the shepherd returned home rejoicing with his lost sheep, all of heaven rejoices when one of God’s children comes to faith. Just think, if you have turned from unbelief to belief, you have caused a party to be held in heaven! And if you haven’t yet made that decision, when you do, another party will take place.

Just to emphasise this concept of the great value of each person, Jesus told another parable about the woman and her coins. Each coin would have been equivalent to a day’s wages for a labourer, so would have taken a significant effort to earn. Finding the coin would not be easy as there were no windows in the house usually, hence the need for lighting a lamp. The earthen floor would have easily concealed a coin where it had rolled. It would have taken great care to find that coin and when it was found, again all gathered together to celebrate. As the woman shared her joy with her neighbours and friends, so God shares his joy with the whole company of heaven when a lost soul returns to him.

Even this wonderful understanding of our value to God can still allow us to miss the point of how personal God’s care is. We can nod in assent and still not let it touch us. Paul in his letter to the Romans makes it plain that this searching for lost sheep or sweeping for lost coins was not a cosy domestic scene played out by God. The way we are found is by Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ died and rose for you and for me, for each of us as individuals. There is no way to hold this kind of God at arm’s length. God as a man, suffered pain and humiliation for each one of us, dying the cruellest death ever designed.

Imagine knowing a person who is prepared to die for you, who actually does die for you. Members of the emergency services regularly risk and sometimes lose their lives to save others. Ordinary members of the public may step in to protect someone from attack or accident and lose their lives. A parent may give their life for their child. Having that happen to you would make a lasting impact on the rest of your life. Such events are rare and would not affect many people, though.

Jesus’ death affects us all. It rescues each of us from eternal separation from God if we choose to accept it. God can’t get much more personal in his care than that. This is the love God has for each of us demonstrated in action.

What are mortals, that you should be mindful of them;
mere human beings, that you should seek them out?

When Rev Mark Brown stepped down as priest-in-charge of Anglicans of Second Life at the end of June, he had built a team to take the ministry forward. One of his last actions was to find someone to lead the Pacific Rim service which was proving popular. LouiB Serendipity took on this daunting task, having to learn the ropes very quickly indeed. She has been supported by others from that area of the world as she got to grips with the requirements.

The Leadership Team has just been informed that, due to personal circumstances, LouiB can no longer lead the Pacific Rim Service. We are very grateful for all that she has done and hope that she will remain a member of our community.

The service, which recently changed time to 10pm SLT, will continue to take place. For the time being I shall lead it with help from the various regular attenders. It is the hope of the Leadership Team that a new leader for this service will be found in time. I do hope you will support this service and encourage others who can make it to come along and worship. This week the theme will be ‘Remembrance’ as it is Remembrance Sunday in the UK and some other parts of the world, and Veterans Day coming up in the US.

While saying goodbye to LouiB as service leader, we are able to welcome a new member of our Prayer Team. ZoeRose Eiren has now joined the Team. Members of the Prayer Team are able to be paged from outside the Cathedral and will be happy to pray with you if you have any needs. This is a confidential ministry; whatever you  share will not be divulged to others. We all need support sometimes and the community at Epiphany is happy to offer this prayer ministry to any who need it.

If you need more information do contact me in-world or email ailsa [at] ailsa-wright.net. Any member of the Prayer Team would be happy to tell you more also.

Richard Hooker lived in a period of history when the church was struggling to find its way forward in England. The Protestants and Catholics had been brought together to worship by law, what was called The Elizabethan Settlement. Richard Hooker wrote an 8 volume work called ‘Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity’ in which he explored the way the Church should be governed. It was he who gave the Church the theological method of finding its way which used Scripture, Reason and Tradition. He brought together Catholic and Reformed thought.

The Anglican Church is struggling now to move forward as a whole with a huge diversity of opinion being held. Also, within the Anglican group in Second Life we have members from all traditions in the Anglican Church and those who belong to other denominations and none. Richard Hooker might not understand Second Life, but he would probably understand the challenges of being church in these circumstances.

On Tuesday at the 2pm SLT service, I talked about Richard Hooker and what he gave the Church, which resulted in his being called the ‘founder of Anglicanism’.

The readings were Sirach 44:10-15, Psalm 119:97-104 and John 16:12-15.

Today we remember Richard Hooker, who is listed in the Lectionary as a Priest, Apologist and Teacher of the Faith. He was born in Exeter, in the south of England, in March 1554. As the result of the influence of John Jewel, the Bishop of Salisbury, he went to Corpus Christi College in Oxford. He gained his MA in 1577 and became a fellow of the college. He taught Hebrew at Oxford University as an assistant professor. He was ordained in 1581 and married, and went on to be a parish priest. From 1585-1591 he was Master of the Temple, which means he was the Dean of the Law School there. He later became a parish priest again in Bishopsbourne in Kent, which is near Canterbury, and died there on this day in 1600.

The story of Richard Hooker’s life sounds fairly unremarkable but it’s possible that without him, we would not have a ministry in Second Life which carries the title of Anglican. Richard experienced a church in England which was trying to work forward from the Elizabethan Settlement which came into effect in summer 1559. This comprised two Acts of Parliament. The Act of Supremacy declared that Elizabeth I was “Supreme Governor of the Church in England”. The Act of Uniformity imposed a uniform way of worship to be used in every church. Everyone had to attend church on Sundays and holy days or pay a fine of twelve pence which was given to the poor. In order to allow both Catholics and Protestants to take part, the wording around the Eucharist was kept a little vague. The ornaments and vestments of the church were returned to how they were at the beginning of Edward VI’s reign. This second act was controversial and passed by a majority of only 3 votes.

Until that time, there were Protestants and Catholics following their separate ways. Depending who was the monarch, sometimes it was safe to be one and sometimes it was safe to be the other. Many people lost their lives because they found themselves on the wrong side when a new monarch came to the throne. By an Act of Parliament, both Protestants and Catholics had to worship together whether they liked it or not. Together they had to walk the middle way, the Via Media, which was the way of the Anglican Church, a way between Puritanism and Papalism.

Richard Hooker wrote the 8 volume ‘Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity’, the first four being published in 1593, the fifth in 1597 and the rest after his death. In these books he looked at how the Anglican Church was to be ordered. In so doing he wove together both Catholic and Reformed ideas. His work gained him the title of the ‘founder of Anglicanism’. It is Hooker who gave us the theological method of Scripture, Reason (which also includes experience) and Tradition working together as the way to be Anglican. The trouble with this memorable idea, as with other such ideas before, is that it is possible to get a wrong handle on it and misquote it.

Hooker lived at a time of turmoil in the church and great differences of opinion but his method helped to forge what we now know as the Anglican Church. We too live in a time of great stress in Anglicanism. His method probably offers us a way forward but only if we apply it as he intended. Too often Reason is elevated above Scripture and Tradition, but it was surely never possible to use reason alone to reach the right conclusions in matters of theology. That does not mean that Anglicanism doesn’t recognise the importance of the ability to reason which God has given us.

Hooker teaches that Scripture, Reason and Tradition must be in dialogue if we are to find the our way to the truth. Scripture comes first; Anglicans believe in the primacy of Scripture. It is our starting point and must be read in such a way that it takes account of the kind of writing that it is, as not all of Scripture is of the same genre. Scripture frames and informs Reason, while Reason interprets Scripture. Scripture oversees Church tradition, while the Church recognises and interprets Scripture. Reason interprets and evaluates Tradition while Church Tradition provides a context for this interpretation. Everything is woven together like a cord made of three strands, with the strand of Scripture being the thickest.

As in Hooker’s time and place, we here in the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life are seeking to be a church which holds together people of many different views. Unlike in Elizabethan England we don’t have a law which says we must meet and worship together, nor are we fined a few Linden dollars if we fail to do so, although that might be a good way to collect money for the poor! Instead we choose to meet together here. Our vision statement lists what gives us our Anglican identity, which is explained in the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral:

“The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as “containing all things necessary to salvation,” and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.
The Apostles’ Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself — Baptism and the Supper of the Lord — ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s Words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.
The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.”

After that Richard Hooker is quoted:

“What Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place both of credit and obedience is due. The next whereunto is what any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason. After these the voice of the church succeeds.”

And this explanation follows:

“This means that we look first to the Bible for answers, taking the plain meaning of what is written. If the meaning is not absolutely clear we use reasoning, i.e. common sense. If there is still some doubt, the traditional interpretation established over the years is accepted. Scripture, tradition and reason should work with one another, with Scripture having precedence. To this mix, personal experience is often added as an additional source of understanding. All should be grounded in prayer.

This method of finding our way is particularly important for members of Anglican of Second Life as we live out at least part of our faith in the uncharted territory of Second Life where new questions can be thrown up almost daily.”

More than 400 years after his death, Richard Hooker is helping we who occupy a world he would have had difficulty understanding, to find common ground in our Christian faith, as we meet and worship together from all parts of the world. We owe him a debt of gratitude as we continue to walk the Via Media together.

This weekend, services at the Anglican Cathedral in SL will commemorate All Souls Day, when we remember those who have departed from this life.  If you are not familiar with this holiday, there is a wonderful article on this, and the associated All Saints Day at the Full Homely Divinity website.

If you would like to have someone in particular remembered during these services, I encourage you to let us know.  You can either leave a prayer request in the the cathedral prayerbox (next to the votive candle stand), or email your request to Helene at ailsa [at] ailsa-wright.net.

Ok, now for the latest installment of “As the times change…”  Sit up and pay attention, because this change will affect just about everyone.  On Sunday morning, November 1, the US will move from Daylight to Standard time.  Which means that Second Life Time will move back one hour relative to where you are, if you are not in the US.  And if you ARE in the US, don’t forget to change your clocks before you go to bed on Saturday!

Our midweek services will return to their normal times – Cathedral services at 2pm SLT, Morning Prayer at midnight SLT, and Evening Prayer at noon SLT.  All of the other services will remain at their regular SLT times.

St Paul travelled widely, spreading the Gospel message and starting churches. In the process he suffered beatings,  he was shipwrecked, stoned, often in danger from robbers and others, hungry, thirsty, sleepless. (2 Corinthians 11:23-27) Despite all his suffering, Paul was able to focus on the wonder of the security believers have in the love of God, a love that is always there for them. In Romans 8:31-39 he pours out his thoughts on this wonderful truth and it was this which I concentrated on in my reflection.

The readings for the 3pm SLT service were Romans 8:31-end, Psalm 109:20-26, 29-30, Luke 13:31-end. The reflection follows.

When we read the Bible we get pretty used to thinking of the Pharisees as the bad guys. They seemed to spend their time trying to catch Jesus out, to trip him up with clever questions, to find a way to do away with him. In the passage from Luke it seems they were trying to protect Jesus. That’s quite a different attitude. They warned Jesus to get out of the areas where Herod had jurisdiction – Galilee and Perea. He had had John the Baptist beheaded so I suppose Jesus might well have been the next obvious target. Both were preaching the same message, both could have caused problems with stirring up the population.

Jesus didn’t want to be deflected from his path, regardless of the warnings. He planned to go to Jerusalem and die there, rather than in the areas controlled by Herod. Meanwhile he intended to keep on working at what he was doing. The people still had the need to be healed and taught and Jesus was going to continue for as long as he was free. No one was going to change his plans.

It’s because of Jesus’ being prepared to see his mission through to the end that Paul was able to write his wonderful hymn of security in his letter to the Romans. I’ll return to this later.

It’s possible, I think, to see Paul as quite a stern person, not given to flowery language or excesses, but one who reasoned carefully in order to explain things to his readers. His letters can be densely packed and need reading and re-reading in order to be understood. Paul had a fine mind, trained by Gamaliel, the best teacher around, and this training certainly showed in his letters.

When you read this passage from Romans, it feels as though something was bubbling up inside him and simply had to be expressed. He seems to be bursting with the good news which he simply had to share with his readers.

First we are assured that God is for us. Nothing that Satan can do or those who don’t believe in Christ can do, will be able to ultimately succeed. God is so much on our side that he was prepared to give up his only Son. Having done that, there is nothing else that he is going to withhold from us. He is not waiting for us to be good enough, to earn anything from him. We are saved by God who has chosen us regardless of any merit and has justified us.

Our own consciences may tell us that we are no good, other people may do the same, Satan himself my accuse us of all manner of things, but God has declared that we are righteous. Jesus was prepared to die for us to pay the full price for our sin. He is hardly then going to turn around and condemn us. This should give us great comfort and confidence.

Perhaps had Jesus only died, there might be some question mark over how confident we could be. However, we know that Jesus rose again and that shows that his death was effective in overcoming our sin. Having risen, Jesus is at God’s right hand and from there he intercedes for us. He can do this on the basis of his own blood that was shed on the cross for us. We can be sure that God listens to Jesus.

Paul suffered a lot for his faith and didn’t see the world through rose-tinted spectacles. He knew that believers would suffer in the future as he had already done. He quoted from Psalm 44:22 to show that Christians, like believers in God in the past, would face suffering and possibly death. In fact, the Roman church would soon face terrible persecutions.

No matter what happens, God’s love is constant. We are never lost to his love. Suffering should drive us towards God, not away from him. We can be sure that God’s love is turning bad things to good and making us conquerors of circumstances.

Despite all that had happened to Paul, he is absolutely certain that nothing can separate us from God’s love which is shown to us in Jesus. Paul would not have been able to say this if Jesus hadn’t persisted in his mission to go to Jerusalem and die for us. When he died, he cried out to God ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ At that moment Jesus had become our sin, and that separated him from God. Because that happened to Jesus, because he was prepared to die for us, nothing can now ever separate us from God’s love.

Is there any wonder that Paul was absolutely buzzing with the excitement of this fantastic news? It was far too good to keep to himself. We have the creator of the universe on our side all the time. God’s love for us is so great that we can always feel totally secure in him, regardless of circumstances.

The Psalmist, many years before, had come to the same conclusion as Paul. In Psalm 56:9-11 he says, ‘This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; “I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

This is what Max Lucado has to say on the matter:

God knows you. And he is near you! How far is the shepherd from the sheep (John 10:14)? The branch from the vine (John 15:5)? That’s how far God is from you. He is near. See how these four words look taped to your bathroom mirror: “God is for me” (Ps. 56:9 NKJV).

And his kingdom needs you. The poor need you; the lonely need you; the church needs you…the cause of God needs you. You are part of “the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone” (Eph. 1:11 MSG). The kingdom needs you to discover and deploy your unique skill. Use it to make much out of God. Get the word out. God is with us; we are not alone.

When you know the end of a story it’s so much easier to understand the events leading up to it. We have that advantage when we read the Gospels. We know how it all turns out, we know what happened in the years after Jesus ascended into heaven, we are living proof that his message spread from one small part of the Roman Empire to the whole of the world.

For the disciples things were more difficult. They had the ideas about the Messiah which were prevalent in their culture at the time. Jesus simply didn’t fit with preconceived ideas. Perhaps one of the challenges for the disciples was to see how such a seemingly insignificant ministry as that of Jesus, could have such a huge impact. To help them, Jesus gave them two pictures – a mustard seed and a small lump of leaven. Those pictures can help us too.

The readings at the 3pm SLT service on Tuesday were Romans 8:18-25, Psalm 126, Luke 13:18-21. The reflection follows.

It can be a dangerous thing to get stuck in a particular mindset. It can make seeing how things really are, very difficult indeed.

Some of you will know that I work part time as a counsellor. Quite often those who come for counselling struggle with low self-esteem. It may not be the only issue they are trying to deal with but it can be a contributory factor for many clients. It’s a real problem to get beyond this way of seeing themselves. I’ve asked clients what they are good at, what are their strong points, their talents, what they have done well in the past week/month/year and so on. Usually I receive a blank stare. The sense of being of low value is so ingrained that it’s totally inconceivable that they might be good at anything at all. Clients usually see themselves as rubbish, useless at everything, failures, disappointments to their families and friends, a waste of space.

I asked one client what she would do if someone paid her a compliment. She said she would brush it away. When I suggested that she try accepting the compliment and thanking whoever gave her it, she looked most uncomfortable. That would mean accepting that the person saw something good in her, and that was not part of her mindset.

The disciples were stuck in a mindset too. They had grown up with the idea of a warrior messiah, taking on the hated Romans and restoring the kingdom of Israel. Tales of bravery and decisive action were all part of what they expected. Jesus of course was very different, and his way of bringing in the Kingdom of God was different too. Using his brilliant way of illustrating truths, Jesus found a way to explain what the Kingdom was really like.

The two illustrations in this very short passage from Luke are both giving the same message by comparing the Kingdom to every day pictures which the disciples would be very familiar with.
First Jesus compares the Kingdom to a mustard seed. In the other Gospels we are told that the mustard seed was thought of as the smallest seed of all by the Jews. The seed Jesus meant was probably that of black mustard. When it is fully grown it’s usually like a shrub, about 1.5 metres high. Sometimes favourable conditions allow the shrub to grow as high as 5 metres, a real tree size. That’s really impressive – a tiny, tiny seed becoming a tall tree. The seed would have looked insignificant in the gardener’s hand, but the tree would have been hard to miss. In fact Jesus suggests that the birds most certainly didn’t miss it, but took advantage of it to nest in.

The second parable concerns yeast used for making bread. Today we are likely to use dried yeast as it’s convenient to store and is always ready when the urge to make bread might come upon us. Some people use fresh yeast but you need to use it fairly soon after buying it. In Jesus’ day, the yeast would be contained in a small lump of dough from the day before. It would have been kept damp and added to the new batch of flour and water.

Making bread is a very satisfying process. You start off with flour and water, a little salt and oil, as well as the yeast, and you can have a great time kneading it until it all comes together into a flexible ball of dough. Then you need a lot of patience, as the recipe usually says ‘leave to rise until doubled in size’. Depending how warm the surroundings are, this can take an hour or several hours. The increase in size is caused by the yeast reproducing as it’s a living organism. The yeast uses the sugar in the dough to grow, and in the process it produces carbon dioxide which forms little bubbles. If you want a compact loaf you can bake it after just one rising, but if you want a lighter one, with more bubbles in it, you knead it again, form it into the shapes you want, and then let it rise again before baking it to produce a tasty, light loaf. The yeast is only a tiny part of the make up of the bread but its effect is huge.

In both of these parables a tiny, living organism, becomes something really big and significant in the end. If you hadn’t witnessed it happening, you might not believe it.

At the time when Jesus was teaching his disciples, the Kingdom of God was tiny, though living. It was Jesus, the living Word of God. Just like the yeast spreading through the dough, Jesus was spreading the Word to others, first to the disciples and then to any who would listen. In human terms, what was happening was totally insignificant. The population of Israel was in excess of a million people. At least 30,000 lived in Jerusalem alone. Jesus wandered from place to place, talking to a few people here, a few more there, reaching 5000 at least in one go on one occasion. It must still have seemed so little to the disciples. How could what Jesus was doing make an effect in the greater scheme of things?

The population of the world at that time was around 170 million. When Jesus died he left 11 disciples to carry on his work, 12 when Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot. 12 to reach 170 million! A generation after Jesus had died, things were very different indeed. All parts of the Roman empire, including Britain at the far west, had been reached with Christianity, Thomas had taken it to India, the eunuch baptised by Philip had taken it to Ethiopia. Christians were referred to as people who had turned the world upside down.

I wonder if sometimes, as the message spread and spread, the disciples stopped and remembered how Jesus had explained what would happen. The tiny seed of the wonderful Kingdom of God had grown and grown, just as the mustard seed had become a tree and the little lump of dough had made wonderful fluffy loaves of bread.

Think of our own situation here in SL. In the last 60 days nearly 1.4 million people have logged on, something perhaps a little more than the population of Israel in Jesus’ time. Today nearly 63,000 people were logged on as I came in-world, roughly twice the population of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time. It’s easy to see these big figures and feel that we can make no difference, that SL will continue unchanged by our presence. Like the disciples, we need to understand how the Kingdom of God works. If we gain that understanding, we are less likely to be discouraged or depressed, to feel that our efforts to bring the Kingdom to SL are a waste of time.

Our group has more than 12 active members; certainly we are many more than the disciples were at first. If they can turn the real world upside down, we can turn SL upside down. Of course, we may not see much happening at first but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t working. We may face persecution and setbacks but the Kingdom will continue to spread even so if we remain faithful to our calling.

Let’s be like Paul and look at the big picture. He put everything in perspective when he said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” We must continue to hope for what we do not see and wait for it in patience.

At the Sunday noon SLT service Bible Sunday was observed. For many the Bible may appear irrelevant or out of date or confusing. For those who trust it, the result can be a transformed life. Trusting God’s word is not easy for anyone, as the people of Israel found at the time of Isaiah. It’s often only when it is proved to be true that trust grows.

The readings on Sunday were Isaiah 55:1-11, Psalm 19:7-14, John 5:36b-end. The reflection follows an outline provided on the Bible Society website and the prayer poem at the end of it is also from that source. Some of the prayers used in the service were also from the Bible Society site.

The British people are well known for talking about the weather. It is so changeable that it’s a never ending topic of conversation. I wonder what it feels like to work for the Metrological Office, supposedly predicting what the weather will be like, only to find that it does pretty much its own thing, no matter how well the winds and clouds have been studied. You simply cannot rely on the weather forecast in Britain being right. That’s why we advise visitors to the country to wear layers of clothing so they can put them on and off depending on the temperature, and why it makes sense to carry an umbrella.

Today is Bible Sunday in Britain and so I thought it would make sense for us to mark the occasion here also. Unlike the British weather, the Bible is something that can be relied upon. It doesn’t change several times in a day, but stays constant.

It’s all right for me to say that of course, but many people, Christians included, perhaps even some who are listening to this reflection now or reading it later on the blog, are unsure if they can trust the Bible. Lots of people criticise it and those people can be highly educated. Might that mean that those who rely on it are foolish and misguided? Even if you trust it, you may still be confused by how the Bible applies to our lives today, whether it should be taken literally or not, and if not, exactly how it should be used today. There are certainly some very difficult parts in the Bible that are very hard to understand, and some that seem plain boring and irrelevant. The difficulties can undermine our trust.

When the passage we have read from Isaiah was delivered, probably at the end of the 6th century BC, the Israelites had difficulty trusting God. You can understand why that was so. Nearly 50 years had passed since the Babylonians had conquered Judah. Jerusalem had been left in ruins and the temple had not only been damaged but also desecrated. The leaders of the Israelites had been deported to Babylon. They were able to live reasonably well but they were not living in their own land.

Perhaps the Israelites struggled to have hope for a different future, but Isaiah was speaking God’s words and God could see the big picture. As the power and supremacy of Babylon waned, the Persians under Cyrus were rising to power. God was planning to use Cyrus to set the people free to return to the Promised Land once more.

The people listening to the prophecy would mostly have been born in Babylon. Like modern day immigrants, they would be a little confused in their identity, being both Israelites and citizens of Babylon. In Babylon there were different gods and the fact that Babylon had been able to conquer Judah would have suggested to the people that the God of Israel was not as powerful as the gods of Babylon. They may well have thought of their parents’ and grandparents’ religion as irrelevant and out of date. The gods of Babylon seemed much the more obvious ones to worship. The result of this was that, when Cyrus issued his edict allowing the Israelites to return to Jerusalem, many were reluctant to go. They had a good life where they were and were not prepared to uproot themselves and start again in much harsher surroundings. It would take a great deal of trust to set out on such a risky venture.

Only when the things which Isaiah predicted began to come true could the people trust in God. It was possible to look back and see that God was behind the punishment of Israel in exile. They could then see that God had a hand in raising Cyrus to power. Within a year of coming to power he issued the edict that allowed them to return home. God was showing, in the accuracy of the prophet’s predictions, that he and his Word could be relied upon.

Although we are living 2,500 years after these events, we still need the same reassurance that the Israelites did. We need to know that God and his Word can be trusted. If you read the gospels and look at the notes that link events there to prophecies in the Old Testament, it’s possible to see just how accurate the Bible is. Many of the events of Jesus’ life were written about accurately long before he was born. The Bible is also accurate in the way it shows us just what human beings are like, unable to live good lives, to become all we have the potential to become, without God’s help.

That help comes through God’s Word in the Bible. Isaiah talks about God’s Word being like rain and snow. The rain and snow fall on everyone helping crops to grow, and God’s Word and his many gifts are given to everyone rather than just to a select few. However, not everyone benefits from the gift of God’s Word because not everyone chooses to work to get that Word into themselves. Like water, that needs to be drunk to refresh us rather than just soaking us on the outside, God’s Word needs to be taken into us to have an effect. We have to choose to make the effort, just as the Israelites had to choose whether or not to respond to God’s Word by returning to Judah.

A few years ago, as the result of my first encounter with online church, I grew spiritually very quickly. Part of that growth, probably a major part, came about because online I could attend services twice a day, every day. In those services I was exposed to God’s Word and I spent time in prayer. When I realised how I was growing and changing, I thought back to another time of great change spiritually and realised that that had come about over a period when I had a pattern of reading Bible study notes and praying every night before going to sleep. Once I was less involved in that online church, I found that I prayed and studied less often. I felt as though somehow I was away from home, struggling to get back.

Even getting involved here at the Anglican Cathedral didn’t give me quite the same amount of time for listening to God. As some of you know, in recent months I and others have been saying Morning and Evening Prayer in the Meditation Chapel daily. During that same period there have been great challenges in my every day life. I can’t say in all honesty that I have felt very close to God in this period, but listening to the Psalms and other Scripture, and praying with others, has held me steady during times of great change and kept me free from doubting God and his goodness. I often find that the words I read speak directly to my situation as though they were written with me in mind.

The Bible has the power to transform us as I have certainly found in the past. St Paul talks about us experiencing the renewing of our minds. This is the crop that is grown in our lives by God’s Word, which does not return to him empty but accomplishes the purpose God has for it and for each of us. If we make the effort to drink in the Word, we can be sure that it will change us for the better.

I’d like to finish with a prayer poem from a woman called Yvonne from Rwanda, who has had the experience of leaving her land and living in a new one much like the Israelites did. She expresses how God has been with her, reliable and trustworthy through all the changes.

“Lord, it’s true that you are close to everyone.
I worship and bless you, from this foreign land
Where you had already prepared a place for me.
I thank you for sustaining me at all times and in every situation.

When I look back and see how you helped me cross valleys, mountains and rivers, I can truly say that you are Emmanuel ‘God with us’. And my prayer is that my children, their children and everyone who reads this will know that there is no other God like you, who takes care of everyone who comes to you in need.

You placed generous people along my journey; you protected me from danger, you changed circumstances in my favour. You fed me even though I hadn’t planted anything, and you clothed me even though I spent no money. In all my times of worry, fear and discouragement, you were always there and your gentle voice whispered these words: ‘I will never leave nor forsake you.’ (Joshua 1.6)

You are totally trustworthy. You became man even though you were God, so that you could come close to your people. You lived in exile when you were still in your mother’s arms; you knew what it was to be hungry; you suffered injustice, betrayal and death on the Cross. Thank you for making this incredible sacrifice so that we could come close to you.

I bless you my God, because I’m no longer a stranger. I’ve found a place to settle among your people. Teach me, Lord, to help the poor; to share, to love, to forgive. Bless all those who have opened their arms, their homes and their pockets to help those in need. “