'The Living Word'

The Bible describes The Word of God as alive, active and incisive, the source of wisdom, discernment and initiative. This section tries to reflect that in the Christian message for today, with a changing selection of recent material - sermons at Holy Trinity and other items from further afield. Comments, or suggestions for this section, are welcomed, sent to the Chaplain.

• Are you a Traditionalist? Fr Neil Dawson gave a paper recently to a group of colleagues, on what ‘tradition’ really means as a mark of Christian faith. "People speak of tradition as if it is wearing your grandfather's coat. It's not; it's having babies". Taking seriously together the Bible, God-given human intelligence, and the collective accumulation of knowledge and experience – tradition – is a distinctive feature of being Anglican. It enables us to tune in with the work of God’s Holy Spirit today – in for example, understanding creation and all creativeness, in scientific and technological discovery, in changing attitudes to women and the environment. Click here to read the full paper.
• Jesus – do you and I accept, or reject, him? Perhaps the biggest personal question life can hold for anyone. Fr Neil addressed this in his sermon on the 4th July. He drew attention to what Jesus himself said on this issue, and to the 19th-century painting, familiar to many, of Jesus standing at the door, which could only be opened from inside, courteously waiting to be invited in. The punch-line in this, of course, is that it is about our attitude not just to a historic figure or an old story, but to a living person – the risen Jesus, offering to everyone the personal relationship that is what we are all made for and that is the key to human life at its best. Click here for the full sermon.
• Living as a Christian in today’s world . . . Well, it was much the same in ancient Rome, despite all the differences (overwhelmingly in our favour) between their times and ours. One problem was the same - that the attitudes and life-styles of Christians could be determined more by the surrounding culture than by their faith, and this could lead either to colourless conformity or on the other hand to a Christianity dominated by authoritarian rules and prohibitions. How to avoid these two mistaken life-styles was Fr Neil's theme in his sermon on 28th June. By taking in more deeply the fact that God is real, that we are individually designed, created and chosen by God; and by letting that truth feed and develop us. Click here for the sermon in full.
• How is your Christian perspective on current issues? One of the best organisations for helping us to be aware of and think through some of the issues facing society today is the Jubilee Centre, based in Cambridge. Its combination of a firm Christian perspective, intellectual rigour and a broad knowledge base make it a resource that Christians can use confidently as we seek to live out our faith in the present day. Its current resources section, for example, includes useful material on euthanasia and assisted suicide, and electoral reform and proportional representation. This and other material can be found at www.jubileecentre.org.
• Love is stronger than Death. The theme for the Service on Sunday 6th June was: "God is the source of all love. Our journey through life calls us to accept the truth that we are loved by God so that we can live fully each day and share that love in all our relationships and responsibilities. We know that death marks the end of earthly life, but our faith is that love continues ever stronger in God's presence". Click here for the Bible readings associated with this and the text of Judith Weston's sermon.
• The Ascension: that strange event, celebrated always on a Thursday (so that, true to the Bible, it is exactly 40 days after Easter). Perhaps it is appropriate to remember such a major part of the Christian gospel on what is now a normal working day, because what happened on that day left Jesus' followers in no doubt that from then on he was with each of them, all the time and everywhere, not just with a limited number in one place at a time. Another mind-blowing experience for them, on the same scale as realising the truth of his resurrection. No-one could have been harder to convince of the truths of the resurrection and ascension than these practical straightforward men and women who had known Jesus in the first place. Utterly defeated by his death, they were transformed by the discovery of these truths, as Christians have gone on finding ever since. To read Fr Neil's two sermons for Ascensiontide Click here and here.
• Europe Day - Sunday May 9: 60th Anniversary of the Schuman Declaration.
  
  This Sunday is Europe Day. Even those of us who are part of the Church of England Diocese in Europe might easily forget what a dark place this continent was in the early part of the last century. Countless millions of men, women and children had died or been displaced by two world wars. Great cities had been reduced to rubble. On 9 May 1950 the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, a devoted Roman Catholic, issued a declaration, that there would henceforth be free movement of persons, ideas and goods. This free movement was to be underpinned by a Charter of Human Rights, A Court of Justice to guarantee these rights and a European Assembly in Brussels and Strasbourg "where the live forces of our nations shall be represented." For Schuman, our democracy owed its very existence to Christianity and its commitment to human dignity, freedom and brotherly love.
  
  This Sunday 9 May is, in a very real way, the 60th anniversary of the moment when our modern Europe was born. Our congregations might want to mark this anniversary in some appropriate way. Prayers for peace, security and justice for all might be included, along with thanksgiving for the relative prosperity we, just 7% of the world's population, enjoy. Amongst the readings set for this Sunday, the 6th Sunday of Easter, is Acts 16.9-13, which describes St. Paul's first arrival in mainland Europe.
  
  The Revd Canon Dr Gary Wilton, the Church of England's representative to the European Institutions, and a priest of our diocese in Holy Trinity Brussels, has prepared a pamphlet which the bishops of the Church of England have endorsed. It is available here.