A new commandment

A new commandment I give you – love one another as I have loved you…

Most Thursdays I find myself at the coffee morning at Allhallowgate. We are especially busy in coach trip season. The coaches stop behind our hall and they know after a coach trip people need coffee and they need a loo! So most weeks we meet people from all sorts of places. This Thursday we had a group of Roman Catholic folk from Salford in on a pilgrimage. They were having a Ripon stop en route to Holy Island. Two of them asked me to pray with them in church. I shared a prayer then they said “can we say the Our Father?” 

I’m always nervous when I don’t have the Lord’s Prayer open in front of me. Years ago, I did three funerals in one day at a crematorium and to keep myself fresh I decided to use the Baptist service book for the third one instead of ours. The Baptist book doesn’t have the Lord’s Prayer written out in full. I stood in front of a large, unchurched gathering and announced it. I started “our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name... Then my brain went “you don’t know this prayer; you haven’t a clue how it goes!” I stopped; they stopped. 

I garbled a few sentences and got to the Amen. It was scary and ever since I always have the prayer in front of me when I lead it in public worship. I had to remember on Thursday that Roman Catholic friends stop at the line “but deliver us from evil.” Amen. 

I’d forgotten something I should have easily remembered that brain fog Friday. And friends today I want to suggest that the Church with a capital C has forgotten really what it is here for and what Jesus tells it to do, and what the heart of Jesus message is. 

Love one another. And this means love everyone.

I was walking back to Sainsbury’s car park chatting to a member of St Wilfrid’s in Ripon the other day. She asked me “ what do you think of our new Pope?” I rather like him. Here’s some words which have gone round social media which may be his but if they are not, they arewords capturing his agenda I think. 

“To all who sent prayers, love, and hope as I begin this sacred journey — thank you.

I accept this role not as a throne, but as a vow:

To serve the forgotten, to uplift the broken, tospeak plainly where others stay silent.

To be called "woke" in a world that sleeps through suffering is no insult — it is Gospel.

Woke means awakened by compassion. Guided by truth. Humbled by grace. Committed to justice — not just for some, but for all.

So let them mock. Let them sneer.

We will still build the Kingdom — not with walls, but with love. Be awake. Be loving. Be woke.

Love one another. Do you really mean that, Jesus? Does that include everyone? Have we forgotten the Arminian nature of the Methodist people? I’m including what I think is Charles Wesley’s greatest hymn about inclusion in my service:  O for a trumpet voice, on all the world to call!
To bid their hearts rejoice, in him who died for all; For all my Lord was crucified, for all, for all my Saviour died!

We have forgotten that Methodist theology doesn’t say some, it says all. Love one another. So these past few days the mayor in Ripon has had the flag of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia flown above Ripon Town Hall. We need a day to remind ourselves not all are included by some. There are other examples where we categorise people. We even do it without thinking making people feel or be described like they are second class. One of my folk said on Thursday about the pilgrims, “ they are Roman Catholic but they are very nice!” 

It’s no surprise the Early Church had this inner tussle. Peter has this encounter with Cornelius, a Gentile, and this vision. And he reports back to the leaders of the new Christian community in Jerusalem. And he has to respond to their confusion, and maybe even a sense of betrayal that Peter had violated the group’s norms. He had the gall to cross the line and eat with Gentiles. The higher-ups were likely afraid of losing the meager protection and security that being Jewish provided; it was important for their survival as a distinct people to keep “them” separate from “us.” And Peter could understand their confusion. After all, we know that Peter really wanted to get things right. And before this strange vision of a white sheet being lowered from heaven filled with nearly as many animals as went aboard Noah’s Ark, Peter was his typical self-righteous self – he wouldn’t eat with “them,” the Gentiles, and “they” needed to become like Peter, to follow specific dietary laws, to not work on Saturday, to be circumcised in order to become a follower of Jesus. In fact, it took the sheet being lowered three times, and a voice speaking to him three times, for him to get the message.

But after this experience, Peter realised that mixing Jews and Gentiles wasn’t only permissible – it was actually desired by God! So, he confidently proceeded to explain to headquarters how this came to be. Really, he explained his own new understanding, which opened the door for the conversion of Gentiles.

Can you imagine Jesus in all this? Can’t you imagine Jesus pulling his hair out over this? Thinking, “What? How could they possibly be squabbling over this? I loved eating with all sorts of people! 

So maybe in our heads, love one another is radical and maybe we need to be told again everyone has a place in the heart of God which is love. 

Jesus loved and loves us as one who serves us and calls us friends. As teacher and master Jesus knelt and served and called his followers friends – a reversal of how things were understood. And so we too are to love – serving, treating as beloved friends, not as the world understands importance but as love beckons.As the Pope says if that’s woke so what? 

The heart of the Christian Gospel is that God is love. I 

I wonder if you could only have one story Jesus told what it would be? People have said the story that has the Gospel within the Gospel is the parable of the prodigal son. On 1st July as part of the Ripon Theatre Festival there is a play in the cathedral about the life of Henri Nouwen, who wrote a commentary on the parable, the return of the prodigal son. Last Tuesday folk from five of the Ripon churches shared a fabulous evening exploring the book and its themes. Then on Wednesday morning in an assembly on compassion at Holy Trinity Infants School I got the children to act the story out. We even had pig noises! 

Nouwen suggests the heart of Jesus message is a God of compassion who waits for us and runs to meet us. He says reflecting on the world, “The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the Beloved, and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world.” How good is it we have a God who waits, who rejoices at our return, who throws his arms around us and celebrates when we are found.

Love one another as I have loved you. That is the reason we do church. That is the reason we reach out. That is the reason we are hospitable. That is the reason we engage with our town. All matter, all deserve our attention, all are welcome, we don’t choose who God loves. Never. 

 

Friends I don’t come here very often but I hear a lot about things like Wednesday Welcome and Saturday coffee and outreach into the town and I commend those things because they are manifestations of love. Love one another is a response to the love of God seen in Jesus every day. We remember it at Christmas, we remember it at Easter but we easily forget it at other times. Maybe like I have the Lord’s Prayer written out, and I have lists at home to remember things, we need constant reminders that God loves us and God tells us, his church to get on with loving. 

But that has to mean everyone, and it also has to mean encounter outside the church building. Gareth met me in Ripon the other day. As we walked across the market square he laughed and said, “you do know a lot of people don’t you?” I’ve spent a lot of time being seen, having conversation, showing the Church will engage with you, laugh with you, cry with you, show you you matter. We’ve forgotten to go out because we are tired keeping inside going. Haven’t we?  

 

Jesus’ spirit will lead us, and we can be assured there will be conversion and change involved. As we continue to get to know him, we simultaneously discover parts of ourselves that have yet to become aligned with God’s better-than-imaginable dream for the world, for our congregation, for you, and for me. The story in Acts 11 isn’t just about the conversion of the Gentiles; it is also about the deepening of Peter’s conversion, the deepening of his understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, the ever-expanding invitation to join the Holy People of God, and the extinction of the “out” category. A new commandment I give you – love one another as I have loved you.

 

And maybe this is the way forward. Let Pope Leo have the last word: 

" Brothers, sisters…

I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left.

To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home.

I, too, was angry with God.

I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine. And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo. But then I discovered something:

God doesn't shout. God whispers. And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain, from a grandmother who feeds you without having anything.

I don't come to offer you perfect faith.

I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs.

 

I'm not asking you to believe in everything.

I'm asking you not to close the door. Give a chance to the God who waits for you without judgment.

I'm just a priest who saw God in the smile of a woman who lost her son... and yet she cooked for others.

That changed me.

So if you're broken, if you don't believe, if you're tired of the lies... come anyway. With your anger, your doubt, your dirty backpack.

No one here will ask you for a VIP card.Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary.

God doesn't need soldiers. He needs brothersand sisters. And you, yes, you... are one of them."

Remember today you are loved. Jesus is here.

Remind yourselves you cannot exclude people from it. 

Be a church that is love embodied and takes that love where love needs to be. Be invitational. The Church is called to be a place where all—all God’s friends—are welcomed and invited to share in life in all its fullness.

A new commandment I give to you, love one another.

 

 

V E Day 80 years on

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 

On Thursday morning, VE Day, a proclamation will be read out by town criers where we have them across the country at 9am. 

 

“Eighty years ago today the United Kingdom and its allies from around

the globe celebrated VE Day – the end of the war in Europe.

Today as we come together to commemorate what came to be known as VE Day our thoughts turn to thanksgiving and remembrance of those millions that gave so much to achieve the freedom we all enjoy today.

We remember those we lost, those who were wounded or scarred, those

whose lives were forever changed by war. Nobody was immune from the

impact of that terrible conflict.

Let us pause to remember their sacrifice.

We reflect too upon the words of our late and glorious Queen, Elizabeth

– “Never Give Up, Never Despair”.

And so we offer thanksgiving for the selflessness of those who gave up

so much in order that future generations should enjoy the blessings of

freedom, democracy and peace.

God Save the King” 

 

This week, communities will gather I think to do two things. To remember the conquering of evil and tyranny and to resolve to work for a better world.

There aren’t as many people now who lived through the two world wars so it’s important we keep telling the story and marking the celebration of peace over war. Perhaps it felt over those six years of the Second World War that peace would never come. In my lifetime I can only compare it to the Covid pandemic and its restrictions, hoping for release from it dominating life. Someone at Grewelthorpe last night asked me if I think marking this VE Day will carry on when those who were there have passed on. I think it will. More young people are at events exploring what happened. 

 

Two words: remembering and resolving.

 

Let’s remember the conquering of evil. We had our passage from Revelation. Revelation is all about the clash between Rome and Jesus. 

 

Let me draw you into the context. In people’s lives, Rome dominates horizons, being out of step risks suspicion, poverty, death. Rome is the reality with which everyone has to do. The psychological effect of Roman power on day-to-day life cannot be underestimated: it becomes difficult to imagine a different world. The churches have become trapped, unable to see beyond the obvious reality of Roman power.

It is that situation which John addresses for the rest of his book. And so he writes to open the eyes of the churches, to enable them to see things differently.

 

Over against the apparent day to day reality of Roman power, John places the absolute reality of God, before whom all other pretensions to power pale into insignificance. Lift your eyes, says John, and see that there is something much greater than Rome, snap out of your limited vision, see Rome for what it is, live from a different perspective altogether. The emperor may claim to be a god, but such a claim is utterly empty in the light of the absolute reality of God.

Not only so, but through a series of fantastical visions, John exposes Rome as the puppet of evil, a tyrannous regime manifesting all that is opposed to God. 

The Roman empire is not something to accept easily, not something to which to conform, but is to be resisted as the evil which it is. And be in no doubt, says John, the victory of God over evil is assured, this new Babylon of Rome will fall, evil will be vanquished, there will be a new Jerusalem. So, in the face of the oppression of Rome, John gives the beleaguered churches hope, he gives them a vision to live towards, he encourages faithfulness and courage, he gives them a God to believe in.

 

The Revelation of John is a tract against tyranny. It was understood as such by the Germans within the churches who resisted Nazism. Victory in Europe should never be understood as a victory over a nation or a people, but as a victory over tyranny. But what is the nature of that victory? How is victory to endure and open into peace? How is it to avoid the easy descent into a tyranny of the new victors? Here again, Revelation points the way.

At the heart of that final vision of the throne of God in chapter 22 is the figure of the Lamb. ‘The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city’, says John. John points us towards Jesus, and particularly towards Jesus on the cross, entering the suffering of the world, bearing the consequences of human evil and violence, absorbing them into God, drawing their power, neutralising them. It is this Jesus, now risen and ascended, who stands at the centre of the throne of God. It is this Jesus who has triumphed over evil on the cross, whose victory is assured.

 

It is only by way of the cross that any victory is meaningful, for the cross breaks the cycle of violence which sets people against one another, the cross opens out a path of forgiveness and reconciliation, the cross makes peace, real peace, possible. On either side of the throne of God and the Lamb in John’s vision grows a tree of life, the leaves of which, John says, are for the healing of the nations.The victory of the cross is one which issues in lasting peace. It is only, then, as we allow the cross to shape our lives that we can continue to celebrate a victory of peace.

 

That last remark is important. For a VE Day celebration looks not only to the past and its heroes, but to the future and the continuing battle against all forms of tyranny in which we are all enlisted. 

Whilst we celebrate eighty years of peace, we cannot be complacent about our present or our future but continue to root ourselves faithfully in the cross of the risen Jesus and in his victory over evil that we may live in hope for a peaceful future. There are signs the world is a bit dangerous today. There are signs that what I want is winning again over shalom and respect for all. 

Which brings me to my second word: resolution, resolving to work for peace and love in peace. That God’s way is always stronger, and God will win through in God’s time. 

I was reading just recently the life of the great, 20th-century Methodist preacher, W. E. Sangster, who was the minister at Westminster Central Hall in London, the great Methodist Church. He took over there just before the Second World War began. He was a great preacher, and the place was often filled to hear what he had to say. But then came the Blitz, and the Church turned the basement into a shelter. It became a home and a place of protection for more than 450,000 people over the course of the war. During the Blitz, W. E. Sangster kept preaching. There was a little button on the pulpit that was a reminder that there was an air raid shelter, and it would flash red if there was a warning, but no matter what, he kept preaching. He did say, “Those who have weak constitutions may want to go downstairs right now.” So people got up and left during the sermon.

But even when the little red light intimated that there was an air raid warning, he kept preaching the Word of God. He and his wife would go downstairs and be with people in the basement afterwards; they would be there night after night, and during it all, he wrote his PhD thesis at London University. Remarkable! He graduated in 1943. But he kept preaching. Why? Because he said people need to hear the Word of God, and the Church needs to be the Church when people are uncertain.

For Sangster, the Church was the place to renew the foundation in the life of Christ. It existed as a place to build together. It was a place of protection, of safety against the bombs of the world.

In the end Revelation points to a new heaven and a new earth. 

 

 There was another sense in the hearts of many on that day in May eighty years ago. They knew that huge challenges lay ahead. A social order and a society had to be rebuilt, not just here but in so many other countries, too. New dangers stalked the world: poverty, long-term unemployment, rancour and discord which had to be overcome if a true peace, always more than the absence of war, was to be constructed.

History tells us that in the post-war years some great achievements emerged from dialogue and mutual effort. A need was recognised for more than a renewed economy. A renewal of spirit, a renewal of identity, a renewal of values and personal moral vision was needed to replace the deconstruction of so much in the brutality of warfare. The vision of faith, the Christian faith, played a crucial part in that effort, notably in the construction of a renewed system of education. Similarly, the NHS emerged, and social renewal in housing and welfare. It was a time of building, houses and souls. That too must be part of our reflection today, and part of our thanksgiving.We work to build a better world. Peace.

So let’s turn to our Gospel, which I included at the beginning of these thoughts. It was used in services after the end of hostilities was announced. The song of the angels is not just for Christmas Day, it is for every day. We need to look for angels surrounding us announcing even if it’s dark or the world is still full of war if not world war, there is this theophany: peace on earth and goodwill to all humankind. It’s a reality not merely a hope.

The eighth of May is the day the church also remembers Mother Julian of Norwich. Crippled by illness and seeing poverty outside her cell she immersed herself in prayerand she said “all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” Now! Friends I think it is the task of every church and chapel to proclaim peace. 

In Yorkshire at war, Rob Wilton is quoted: “the day peace broke out I said to my wife she weren’t looking too cheerful. She said there was nothing to look forward to now. Before, we had the all clear.” Maybe those who lived through it all had resolve and maybe we have complacency… that cannot be. 

I end like this with two stories – a sermon written by a wartime vicar in Devon has been found in a draw by his daughter. It ends like this: Our victory in Europe is won, but there is a long job ahead to make liberty available again to everybody. But can’t you see it is a job after God‘s own heart, since he himself is doing the same thing? If God is with us, in the fight, in the sorrow, in the victory, in the rejoicing, in the reconstruction – if God is with us, who can be against us?

Then a story Methodist minister David Hinchcliffe told us from when he was Chair of the Channel Islands. Remember the Channel Islands were occupied. There was a Methodist chapel on Alderney which had a last hymn in its service sometime in 1940 and then was closed down until after liberation five years later. When they opened the chapel they saw the hymn board with numbers on was still up from that last Sunday, so they decided to start a new beginning with that hymn that they’d ended worship with five years earlier. 

 

This, this is the God we adore;
our faithful, unchangeable friend;
whose love is as great as his power,
and neither knows measures nor end.

'Tis Jesus the first and the last
whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;
we'll praise him for all that is past,
and trust him for all that's to come.

A prayer:

On that first Victory day, people celebrated with joy, glad of each other’s company, and grateful for the laughter and love that follows times of sadness and loss. At this moment we too are reminded of the value of each other.

Loving God, we give You thanks for the years of peace that the nations of Europe have enjoyed since the Second World War and we ask for Your healing on our land and across our world in these days.

As we remember, teach us the ways of peace.

As we treasure memories, teach us to hope.

As we give thanks for the sacrifices of the past, help us to make Your future in this world, until Your kingdom come. Amen.