Ken Howcroft

PSA 15 January 2012

Ken Howcroft. “Being Seen and Seeing Truly”. A sermon for the second Sunday after Epiphany. When Jesus calls Simon he renames him Peter to show the role he was to play as the rock on which the other disciples will be built, just like after Jacob the cheat discovered that you cannot run away from people, from yourself or still less from God and he was in turn cheated but committed himself to return and take up his role, he was renamed Israel, the one who see God. When Jesus encounters Nathanael, he does not rename him: he is already a gift of God. Moreover he is not like Jacob, but a real Israelite. he sees things clearly and tells them bluntly: can anything good come out of places like Nazareth? But like Philip had promised him, everything they had learnt about God seemed to make sense when you met Jesus. Nathanael, a true Israelite, sees that Jesus is his king, the King of Israel. Jesus says that like Jacob he will see ladder of communication from God to people on earth. But the ladder will come down now to Jesus not Israel. And at the same time, Jesus himself will be the ladder down which God’s communication will come. The readings were 1 Samuel 3: 1-10 and John 1:43-51.

PSA 08 January 2012 Covenant Sunday

Ken Howcroft. “Follow the Star of Grace!”. A sermon on the Sunday after the feast of the Epiphany which was also Covenant Sunday, when the opportunity was provided for any who wanted to do so to renew their covenant relationship with God in the context of a communion service. Christian discipleship does not mean being given an easy way round problems, but a way of living through them and redeeming them. And it is a great comfort to know that God is with you, carrying you, loving you. Even when things go against you, and your health or your relations or your work or world events or the government or even the Church are messing you about, God in Christ is with you. To know that helps you avoid being a victim in life. It takes you on a journey with God in the power of the Spirit. Like the Magi, it means you start to follow the Star. Like them you might find that you start off with some idea of where you are going, but you need further help along the way. But help is there. You will find it as you share bread and wine at the communion table. Here we take ordinary things, bread and wine, that nourish us, thank God for them and discover that Jesus Christ is really present with us in them and through them. Here we recognise that God has created us and each other, thank God for ourselves and each other and discover that we become the body of Christ together in the world. So you are not on your own. In the words of the covenant and then in communion with Christ around the table, you will discover that God is with you and for you if you will accept it. All you have to do is say “yes”. Go on, say “yes”!. 

The readings were Jeremiah 31.31-34; Romans 12.1-2; and Matthew 2.1-12.

PSA 1 January 2012

Ken Howcroft. “He came to his own…..”. A sermon on New Year’s Day. The ending of one year and start of another is a time for reflection. Half way through the Christmas season it is time to ponder what the Christmas story means, just like Mary stored up her memories and pondered them in her heart. The opening to John’s Gospel is like a deep and profound meditation on the meaning of it all. As we grapple with it, we have to hold on to the picture of that tiny baby. When a newborn baby is put into your arms you have all the wonders of life, and suddenly everything seems to make sense – the life brings light and that in turn gives us life. If you want to see what God who spoke in the beginning and created the universe is like, look at his Word made flesh in the form of Jesus. Jesus does not come to where God is not, because God has created everything. Rather when God comes to us in the form of Jesus, he comes to where God already is, even though we often do not recognise God in the world. Jesus is the human face of God. We are blessed because God has created us and the world in which we exist. When God comes to us in Jesus we recognise and receive more of the fullness of God. We receive blessing on top of blessing, grace upon grace. And if we accept Jesus into our hearts and let him grow up within us, we will find that we are becoming children of God in the world because we are one with the Son of God. The readings were Ephesians 1:3-14 and John 1:1-18.

PSA 25 December 2011 Christmas Day

Ken Howcroft. “Glory to God in the Highest! But are you frightened enough?”. Christmas can be a scary time. It is surprising how many times the Bible stories for this season mention that people were afraid. But if God starts speaking to you or coming into your life, that tends to turn your life upside down. So perhaps there is good reason to be afraid. The angels calm Mary and the Shepherds. They all have to be prepared to go along with god, and see what is happening. They have to experience things, and accept that the meaning will only become plain to them afterwards. So Mary ponders everything in her heart. The miracle that gradually unfolds is that the birth of God’s son is the revealing of God’s love in human experience. We see God’s glory in ways that we can touch, and hold, and understand. That make us give glory to God in return. But it also brings peace to all those to whom god is favourably disposed. And since God is a God of love, God is favourably disposed to all of us no matter who we are, what we are like or what we have done or failed to do. God places his love and forgiveness into our hands like Jesus was placed in the hands of Mary and Joseph. We can choose to abuse it or to accept it. If we accept it, we start to feel the peace flowing within us and reaching out to others from us. The shepherds ended up giving glory to God in an echo of the song of the angels. Pray God that we do the same! The readings were Isaiah 52:7-10 and Luke 2:8-20.

PSA 18 December 2011 Carol Service

Ken Howcroft. “Saying Yes to the Way that God Loves”. A sermon for the fourth Sunday in Advent. The sermon followed straight on from a presentation by the children and young people entitled “The Way that God Loves”. For God’s love to become real in the form of the birth of Jesus, lots of people had to play their part. We often act as if we want Christmas to be unreal, a fancy story that is not about lives like the ones that you and I live. If people like the innkeeper, the shepherds, the magi, Joseph and Mary were really human, and God came into their lives, then God might come into ours. That might be one of those Christmas presents that we prefer not to get! Mary had to say “yes” to God. She had to let herself be turned upside down. She had to put her reputation and her life on the line to let God be God in ordinary, everyday human experience. Pray God that we can do the same at this Christmas time.

The reading was Luke 1:26-38.

PSA 11 December 2011

Muriel Sowden. “Make his paths straight!”. A sermon for the third Sunday in Advent. The writer of John’s Gospel wanted to show the divine identity of Jesus. In talking of the “Word” he used a concept that could be understood in both Jewish and Greek culture. The creative power of the loving mind of God became real, coherent and identifiable in the person of Jesus Christ. It shines in him as a true light in the midst of the darkness that surrounds humanity and amongst all the other lights that compete for our attention. In Jesus we see that God is a God who comes to be with us, accepting, forgiving and loving us. Human beings bear witness to that. In John’s Gospel we are not told about the miraculous birth or the confrontational message of the John who is known in the other Gospels as “the Baptiser”. He bears witness to what is beyond him rather than draw attention to himself. His identity lies in his relationship to Jesus. Only in our relationship with God in Jesus can we know our true identity, and be our true selves, because the good news is that God is love. We are called to proclaim that and to prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness. What does that mean at this Church in the centre of Rome? God does not see what we are now but what we can become. Jesus is asking if we want to be made whole. We have all struggled with brokenness. Transformation can only come in stages. We do not yet know the full impact of his coming. Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight!

The readings were Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 and John 1:6-8, 19-28.

PSA 04 December 2011

Ken Howcroft. “Cry out and prepare in the wilderness”. A sermon for the second Sunday in Advent. Are you ready yet for Christmas? To save the world from economic crisis and from becoming a wasteland or wilderness, should we do as they say and go shopping: buying things that we don’t want for ourselves, or things that other people don’t want as gifts for them, and using our credit cards to solve the debts of countries by going into personal debt ourselves? Or should we learn not just to quote the Bible but to digest its truths and then speak biblically and prophetically to our contemporary world? God has always created things out of nothing, brought order out of chaos, life out of death and hope out of despair, because that is the sort of God God is! He is waiting to do it again. It needs us not just to talk about how to save the wasteland around us, but to go and join people in the wilderness and point to God’s coming there. Are we ready to do that? Comfort, my people, says your God! The readings were Isaiah 40: 1-11 and Mark 1: 1-8.

PSA 20 November 2011

Ken Howcroft. “Stir us up, Lord, to celebrate Christ the King!” A sermon preached two days before ministers/pastors and leaders of Church Councils of protestant/evangelical churches in Rome meet with the President of the Italian Republic and then have a round table discussion with politicians from many of the political parties on the theme “Protestantism in Italy today: Vocation, Witness and Presence”. If Christ is King, how are our kings and political leaders to be judged? How are we to be judged as his followers? The judgement will not be about what flattering things we can say or what showy gifts we can bring at some climactic, other-worldly time in the future, but how we respond to others, particularly the weak and the marginalised, in the everyday events of the here-and-now. In responding to them we shall be responding to Christ who identifies himself with them. The readings were Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Matthew 25:31-46.        

PSA 13.11.11 Remembrance Sunday

Ken Howcroft. “Don’t bury the grace of God, risk living it!”. A sermon on Remembrance Sunday as Italy is changing its government in the midst of the Eurozone crisis. Last week we learned that just because Jesus has not yet returned in person, we must not think that we can forget about preparing his path or about living, loving and acting as his disciples, and then, when things so start to happen and the kingdom does appear to have come, try and rush around in a panic to get everything done. This week we hear that this means that we are not to trust political slogans that say “There will be peace and security” to the extent of sitting back and doing nothing. The gift of peace that occasionally emerges after people have given their lives or had them taken away in war is not a resource or a talent that we can bury in the ground. Nor is the grace or love of God. We have to risk using God’s grace, love, peace and salvation as we help to make those things real for others. The readings were 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 and Matthew 25:14-30.

PSA 06.11.11

Ken Howcroft. “Are we ready? (And where’s the Bride?)”. Will the dead be advantaged or disadvantaged compared with the living when Christ comes to complete the transformation of the world into the Kingdom of God? Because Jesus has not yet returned in person, do not think that you can forget about preparing his path or living, loving and acting as his disciples until he does, and then try and rush around in a panic to get everything done. A sermon for the Sunday between the festivals of All Saints and All Souls and Remembrance Day. The readings were 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and Matthew 25: 1-13.