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Keep up to date with the latest sermons from St. Anselm's in Hayes Town, London. Scripture and the word of God brought directly to your audio device. Deepen your faith, deepen your love and learn more about how Jesus works in your life.

The St Anselm, Hayes Sermon Podcast St. Anselm, Hayes

    • Religion & Spirituality
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Keep up to date with the latest sermons from St. Anselm's in Hayes Town, London. Scripture and the word of God brought directly to your audio device. Deepen your faith, deepen your love and learn more about how Jesus works in your life.

    Your are loved entirely

    Your are loved entirely

    Mark 1:40-45




    There is no situation in this world where you are not loved entirely, deeply, profoundly, awesomely, by Jesus Christ.




    In the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen



    I’ve got an account here of of leprosy and its symptoms. I want to read them to you.



    There are three kinds of leprosy. The first is called Nodular Leprosy. It begins with unaccountable lethargy and pains in the joints. Then there appears on the body, especially on the back, symmetrical, discoloured patches of little nodules. At first pink and then turning brown. The skin is thickened. The nodules gather, especially in the folds of the cheek, the nose, the lips and the forehead.



    The whole appearance of the face is changed until the afflicted person loses all human appearance and looks. The nodules grow larger and larger. They ulcerate, and from them comes a foul discharge. The eyebrows fall out, the eyes become staring, the voice becomes hoarse, and the breath wheezes because of the ulceration of the vocal cords, the hands and the feet also ulcerate. Slowly, the sufferer becomes a mass of ulcerated growth.



    The average course of the disease is nine years and in the end it leads to mental decay, to coma and then death. Those suffering from this type of leprosy become utterly repulsive both to themselves and to others. 



    The second kind of leprosy is called anaesthetic leprosy, and this is where you start to lose feeling, all your nerves stop working.



    The most common form of leprosy is where you get both of those sets of symptoms. So you have the physical distress, you have the physical ailments, you have the mental ailment and you also have the loss of feeling that of course, is what leads to people losing limbs.



    Why have I read out these horrible descriptions on a gentle Sunday morning in February when you’re all dreaming of your Sunday lunch?  



    It’s physically absolutely horrible. I want you to understand the sheer disgust that the vast majority of the population held these lepers in. Lepers were sent to leper colonies, they were sent to special hospitals called lazars, where they had to hide away, they weren’t allowed to look outside except through something called a leper’s slot where they could peer outside and see the outside world. They weren’t allowed to approach anybody. They weren’t allowed to talk to anybody. 



    They were visually disgusting and to the whole of society. 



    I tell you all of this because I want you to understand how outrageous, how absolutely outrageous it was that this leper should approach Jesus.



    It’s beyond comprehension. It’s beyond understanding, 



    How this leper got near Jesus in the first place? 



    That’s the first thing to think about. What that suggests to me is that the disciples are finally starting to understand that to Jesus, nobody is beyond the pale. Nobody is too far gone for redemption. Nobody is unapproachable in his eyes. To Jesus we are all approachable, more importantly all may approach Him.



    We are all wonderful in creation. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done or what we suffer with how unacceptable we may be to the rest of society. We can go to Jesus, and when we feel like that, when we think that perhaps we’ve done something that’s just unbelievably unacceptable, that we can’t even approach Jesus, scripture tells us, this gospel tells us, you can approach Jesus. 



    It’s all very well saying you can approach Jesus, but how will you feel when you do approach Jesus? Will Jesus even want me? I’m so unworthy, I’ve done all of these things wrong. Society hates me, I hate me!



    Yes, Jesus wants you. Yes, Jesus wants to heal you. 



    You can almost hear the reproach in Jesus’ voice when he says, of course I want to heal you. The un-muttered next line. Why wouldn’t I? Why wouldn’t I want to heal you?  Of course I want to heal you, and Jesus reaches out and heals the leper immediately.



    And what

    • 10 min
    Light in the Drudgery

    Light in the Drudgery

    Job 7:1-4,6-7 | 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23 | Mark 1:29-39




    Go throughout Hayes Town as Jesus went throughout Galilee, preaching the good word of Jesus Christ, not by screaming about how happy he makes you, but by showing you how he helps you and reveals the light of God, little bit by little bit, amongst the darkness.




    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Please sit. Oh, my gosh. Hasn’t it been a long winter? I don’t know about you, but I am sick to the back teeth of dark mornings and of dark evenings.



    It has felt like drudgery. I love that word, drudgery. It’s why I enjoy the book of Job. Because I think job speaks to what it’s really like to be a Christian. Sometimes, day in, day out, it is drudgery.



    And it’s okay to feel like that. Sometimes you feel like, well, if I’m a Christian, I should have sufficient faith that I am joyful in the Lord. That’s the word. Joyful in the Lord. Now, to be joyful in the Lord doesn’t mean that you have to be saccharine.



    You have to be happy. You have to be jolly. You don’t have to try and emulate me all of the time. No. Being joyful in the Lord means understanding that even when things are hard, even when you’re not feeling happy, you can take inner joy in knowing that God is walking with you.



    That’s what job teaches us, even though his life is one of drudgery. And doesn’t he use such wonderful language to express that drudgery? When will it be day? Lying in bed wondering when it will be day. We’ve all led in bed, not able to sleep with worries and concerns on our heart.



    When will it be day? And then when we do get up, what do we think? Oh, how slowly evening comes. Those worries and those concerns and the work that we’re doing. It feels like we’re not getting anywhere.



    That drudgery walks through the day with us. But Job had that joy in God. He was able to walk that path of drudgery. He was able to walk that path of hardship and carry them because he knew, he absolutely knew that God was doing it with him.



    The thing is, of course, that that doesn’t actually make you feel any better, does it? It doesn’t put an extra skip in your step. It doesn’t make you smile. And nor should you expect it to. Because we are human beings that experience happiness and experience sadness.



    And that drudgery is something that we should embrace.



    Not to change. Not to say, I want to change this drudgery, not to say I want to do something different, but to say, okay, this is what it is like living this life now. Because I know that I will be with God in eternity. My faith. I will keep my faith because eternity is more important, if we think about that, as I started with winter, what are we starting to see now?



    I’m sick to the back teeth of the dark mornings and the dark nights and of the cold and of the wet. But what are we seeing now? We are seeing the shift to spring. And each morning I wake up, it’s a little bit brighter. And each morning, each evening, each morning I go back to bed.



    Each evening I go back to bed, it’s a little bit lighter. And that is what our faith in God does when we are walking in drudgery. When we are walking in difficulty, that faith makes things a little bit brighter each day a little bit better.



    Now, the trick, of course, and our duty as christians is to share that little bit that we’ve been given that little bit of light with people that we know. And that is exactly what Paul is talking about in our second reading. I do not boast of preaching the gospel since it is a duty which has been laid on me. I should be punished if I don’t preach it. Paul is telling us that that little bit of light, that little bit of encouragement is what will bring other people to faith.



    It is not being joyfully jumping up and down the street saying, I love Jesus, and he’s made absolutely everything wonderful. But it is how you behave as a Christian when you are in drudgery, when

    • 11 min
    The Authority of God!

    The Authority of God!

    Mark 1:21-28




    So go home, get hold of your children who do not come to church. And tell them in Jesus name, come and help run the new boys brigade at St Anselm!




    [automatically transcribed]



    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.



    Please sit.



    And he taught them with authority. I said at the start of mass that I was going to ask you ladies, you mothers, you grandmothers, you aunties in the congregation to use your authority with those men in your life to get them to come and volunteer for boys brigade, and to come and send their children to boys brigade.



    When I say authority, though, what do I mean?



    Do I mean the authority that is, ‘you will do as you are told, otherwise you will get a thick ear’. That’s the kind of authority that my parents exercised over me. And it works up to a point, doesn’t it? You do as you were told because otherwise you’ll get a thick ear.



    You do as your parents tell you to do because they know better than you. But Jesus speaks with a different authority. He speaks with the authority of God that commands all creation. That is what we hear in the gospel. And so we as christians are also able to speak with that same authority.



    So when I tell you to go home and to tell your sons and your nephews and your grandchildren to come and help run boys brigade to send their children to boys brigade, I’m not telling you to tell them using the authority of do as I say or I will give you a clip around the year I am doing you to do it using Jesus authority, using the authority that you have as christians, because Jesus grants you that authority in his name, because your children will respond to you when you speak to them using that authority far better than they will when threatened with a clip across the ear.



    Because children, just like all of us, recognise the authority of God. We recognise the purity of it. It is authority that does not require a threat to be carried out and for obedience. It is an authority that simply requires a love and respect and honour that Jesus gives us.



    So go home, get hold of your children who do not come to church. And tell them in Jesus name, come and help run the new boys brigade at St Anselm. Tell them in Jesus name. Bring your children to the new boys brigade at St Anselm. Tell them with the authority of God that if they come and be part of this, they will know him better.



    Amen.

    • 3 min
    Be Fishers of Men

    Be Fishers of Men

    Mark 1:14-20




    We are ordinary people who go about our daily tasks. We are ordinary people who are called to love Jesus Christ. And now we are asked by him to go out into the world in his name and to bring others into that love as well.




    [automatically transcribed]



    The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.



    This is a very short, but very interesting gospel, because it teaches us about the way that Jesus calls us, about the model that God uses to call us. Now, if we look at how other teachers and other rabbis over the time called disciples to them, well, they didn’t really do that. They didn’t say to people, follow me. Become my disciple. They’d set themselves up as a teacher, as a rabbi, and they would go into the synagogue, and they would go into the marketplaces, and they would teach.



    And people were listening to what they said. And if they agreed with them, if they went to the synagogue, marketplace and they heard the teacher and they agreed with them, then they would follow that teacher. The followers would go and listen to different teachers, and then they would choose who they might follow based on what they were teaching.



    It’s a very greek way of doing it. It’s argument. If I can persuade you through argument, through reason, to follow me, then that’s how it worked. It’s an exercise of intellect and of reason, and that’s how they would get people to follow them. That was very much the model of gathering disciples and of gathering follows.



    People would listen. They would think. They’d reason, and then they would decide to follow. They’d go away. They’d think about it.



    But Jesus does something different. Jesus comes and asks people to follow him. Jesus issues us an invitation. God comes to us and asks us to follow him. And who does God choose to follow him?



    Well, the teachers and the rabbis of the time would attempt to persuade politicians and important people, people with money, to follow them. Because if those people with money, if those people with influence followed them, then their star would rise. They would chart those political waters. So they would go to the markets where rich people shopped. They would go to the synagogues where the great Pharisees were who could help them in their political career.



    But Jesus, who does Jesus choose to call to him? Well, of course we know that Jesus did the same thing, didn’t he? He always went to the important people. He went to the rich.



    Oh, no, no. Definitely didn’t. I’ve got that wrong, haven’t I? Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus called straightforward, ordinary, normal, everyday people, to follow him.



    He didn’t try to find people with influence, with money, with power. He didn’t try to chart those political waters. He wasn’t very clever about those earthly things, if you like. He wasn’t sneaky. He wasn’t political in that way.



    He just asked ordinary people to follow him. And he asked people who were doing their everyday work. He asked fishermen who were about their work. They were casting their nets, just getting on with the everyday task of living. They weren’t trying to engage in any political uprising.



    They weren’t trying to engage in becoming more important in the community that they were living in. They weren’t trying to do things. They were just doing their job. And this is how Jesus continues to call us today. He calls us in our everyday life.



    He calls us to follow him, believe it or not, when we’re doing our shopping in Iceland, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in Iceland, in Hayes Town, I don’t know how many times, and called on God, that’s for sure. God calls us to follow him when we’re sat at our desk. God calls us to follow him when we’re loading the washing machine. God calls us in our everyday life and in our everyday tasks. And so, as much as we know that God talks to us through scripture and through sacrament here in church

    • 16 min
    Listen to what Jesus whispers.

    Listen to what Jesus whispers.

    Matthew 2:1-12




    …LISTEN, listen to what God tells you, listen to what Jesus whispers in your ear




    I love Epiphany. Things feel like they’ve settled down after the busyness of Christmas. The urgency of the day; the fight to get everything ready is over and we find ourselves a little more relaxed. I can see the parallels with the Holy Family. Gone is the urgency of the ride to Bethlehem. Gone is the urgency of finding a place to stay. Gone is the urgency and pain of childbirth in a less than ideal place. 



    Now…. Now there is peace. The Holy Family in the stable, surrounded by the animals keeping them warm. Wrapped up against the cold outside and simply being together. 



    I hope that over the last week or so you have found space and time to be with your families. Wrapped up against the world, warm and quietly eating through the last of the treats from Christmas. 



    Though I wonder how many of us are still doing that at Epiphany? We’ve almost certainly by this point turned our minds to the new year and new tasks. Perhaps the Christmas decorations have already come down and the Christmas cake is all gone. 



    Traditionally Christmas decorations will stay up until at least Epiphany – today – because it is a moment to remember that Christmas is not over, it continues in the way we live our lives and how we react to the news that Jesus Christ is born amongst us. 



    When I talk about Jesus Christ being born amongst us, I’m not just talking about that day two thousand years ago, but how Jesus Christ is born amongst us each time a new person comes to know Him or how Jesus Christ is born amongst us each time we renew our faith, or each time we remember we are His children and correct our behaviour to be more like him. 



    Jesus Christ is born amongst us over and over and over again. 



    It is how we respond to that realisation that defines what kind of Christian we are. 



    To my mind there are three ways to respond to the birth of Jesus Christ over and over again in our lives. 



    1 – Hatred and hostility. The reaction of Herod. 



    When we realise that Jesus is with us, that He is prompting us to live a better and different kind of life we can get caught up in the world around us and dismiss Him with anger. We can find ways to work around Jesus – what we know to be true – in order to kill Him within us. We will rationalise bad things in order to continue in our comfortable lives. We will find ways to destroy Jesus within us, whilst outwardly saying we want to worship Him.



    We come to church and show the outward signs of loving Him, but we ignore Him in our hearts and worse find a way to dismiss Him, to kill Him. 



    This is very dangerous. When you do this the devil will find a way to work within you. Evil will work away in the hypocrisy that exists within you. 



    When you find yourself hating what Jesus tells you to do, how to live, how to love, then it is time to fall to your knees in that stable and ask for the comfort and the prayers of the Holy Family. 



    There is a way back, a way to safety – it is the love and care of the family of Christians around you. 



    And fellow Christians – it is your job to see this happening in your brothers and sisters and to take care of them just as Mary and Joseph would have done in that stable as visitors knelt beside Jesus in his crib. 



    The second reaction –  Indifference. 



    This is the reaction of the scribes and the chief Priests that worked for Herod. The birth of Jesus made no difference at all in their lives. They were so engrossed in the life of the Temple – the Temple let’s not forget that Herod had built for them – that the prophecy of the birth of a King in Judea was utterly irrelevant to their daily lives. 



    There are many Christians who are so indifferent to the teaching of Jesus, to His active encouragement in their daily lives, that He could appear in front of them, and they’d dismiss Him without a second th

    • 10 min
    Faith moves mountains

    Faith moves mountains

    In the name of the Father, and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.



    Our Gospel this morning speaks of a mother’s unwavering faith in her meeting with Jesus. It has important lessons to teach us – as all encounters with Jesus do – a lesson about persistence, about humility, and about the amazing power of our own faith.



    We start with Jesus withdrawing to Tyre and Sidon. Jesus has just fed the five thousand, healed the sick in Gennesaret, and mourned the death of John the Baptist. 



    He appears to be – quite understandably – tired and fed up. His manner could even be described as grumpy. He has come away from the big Jewish towns and cities and come to a non-Jewish area where perhaps he feels he may have some peace to process all that has just happened to him and as we turn to the rest of Matthew – face his questioning, trial and execution. 



    But as ever, this episode is deliberate – Jesus is teaching us something quite important – even when he is tired, grumpy and fed up – a lesson for me in and of itself!



    When the lady – a Gentile, a non-Jewish person – approaches Jesus she is desperate. Her daughter is being tormented by evil and she pleads with Jesus for mercy. 



    The disciples respond by asking Jesus to send her away – ‘she is crying out after us!’ They are tired as well. They seem to be embarrassed and I’m sure they were looking forward to a rest as much as Jesus was.



    …and this is what Jesus was waiting for. A moment to teach his disciples – and us – about the width of God’s mercy. He speaks to an inner thought that he knows all his disciples carry – ‘I am here for the lost sheep of Israel’. 



    In other words – Jesus says that he is here purely to care for the Jewish people – all those who were born Jewish but who have wandered away from the Law.



    The disciples must have had a moment… hang on… look at this poor woman who needs your help – and we know you can help… and that is the moment Jesus is waiting for. 



    As soon as he says this the woman falls to her knees in front of Jesus and cries out, ‘Lord, help me!’.



    She goes on, ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table’. 



    With this simple exchange she has demonstrated her FAITH. She has demonstrated that Jesus is not just for the Jewish people but for all with faith! She has acknowledged Jesus divine authority and power – even in the face of direct pressure to say or do otherwise.



    What an amazing woman! What an amazing faith! To not simply accept what is before her – but driven by LOVE for her daughter to kneel before Jesus and seek his mercy and Love in return – KNOWING that it will come. WHAT FAITH!



    It is this faith that Jesus responds to – and here is the lesson for his disciples – and for us – it is our FAITH that comes from LOVE that God will always respond to. 



    Jesus grants the woman’s request, and her daughter is immediately healed. 



    There are four aspects of this encounter that we can learn from.



    1 – Persistence in prayer



    The woman did not give up at the first rebuttal – even though that rebuttal was so strong. Even when it feels our prayers go unanswered, we must continue to pray with patience and determination.



    2 – Humility



    Despite her pride and discouragement and the eyes of the disciples upon her – the woman kneels before Jesus – submitting herself to his divine authority. Her humility opens the door for a powerful exchange with Jesus. We must approach Jesus with the same humility in our prayer and here at mass.



    3 – Faith



    We learn that Jesus love, mercy and healing is not simply for one group of people – but for all. We need to consider our reactions when people reach out to us for help – do we send them away or dismiss them because they’re not one of us? Do we say that because you’re not Christian we can’t help you? Or do we do all we can to heal them and provide them wit

    • 8 min

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