Some thoughts on Corpus Christi

 Corpus Christi Sermon 2023

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Corpus Christi is the day when we think about the Eucharist, and for the preacher it is the day they have to try and explain what is going on with bread and wine turning into body and blood.

Now I did consider taking the easy way out and saying it's a holy mystery that we can never understand, amen, and sitting down. 

Whilst some of you might have preferred, that I was recently reminded that only around twenty percent of our communication is done using words. So I decided to take a look at what the actions in the Mass communicate about what we believe.

Firstly we have a rather long introduction of prayers, readings and hymns. This helps get us in the right frame of mind to engage with something holy, it gets us focused on God.

The prayer of confession and the absolution are key. It is saying that what is coming up is something holy and we need to be cleansed of our sin before we can receive it. 

The peace is also important in expressing that we are at peace with our neighbour. 

In Matthew's gospel Jesus says that if you bring a sacrifice to the altar and remember that you have fallen out with someone, go and be reconciled with that person first. 

What we are doing at the altar is such a holy act that we need to be in a state of holiness, reconciled with God and each other. Sharing the peace reminds us of this.

Then the action, moves from the body of the church to the altar. The altar is traditionally seen as the most holy place in the church. Many of the first altars were the tombs of the martyred saints. 

Whilst the body of the church may be used for secular activities such as fairs, markets, concerts etc the altar is kept only for the most holy of activities. 

So the movement of action from the body of the church to the altar is a way of saying get ready, we're getting to the really important bit now.

When the bread and wine, the gifts of the people, are brought to the altar from the back of church they are escorted by the candle bearers with lighted candles. 

Now, back in the day, there may have been a practical reason for this, So people could see where they were walking. However it also shows that these gifts are something important, something to be honoured.

Once the bread and wine are on the altar, they are censed with the incense, as they are about to be transformed from everyday bread and wine into the most holy sacrament of the body and blood. 

The people are also censed as we will also become changed and become holy through receiving the sacrament.

In the eucharistic prayer we remember God's saving actions and give thanks for them. There are two parts of the eucharistic prayer that are especially significant. These are indicated by the ringing of the bell to make sure we are all paying attention.

These are, firstly, at the epiclesis where the Holy spirit is called down upon the gifts of the people. 

The second time is at the words of institution, when the priest elevates the bread and the chalice for all to see.

This is also the point at which the priest will genuflect, indicating that bread and wine is now transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Extra censing is also done which indicates that this is now something special and holy.

When we come to receive communion we kneel, if able to, to show our acknowledgement that this is something special.

Tonight because we are especially celebrating the sacrament we will go further in our adoration. 

After receiving communion the sacrament will be processed around the church before being placed back on the altar and acting as a focus for a time of prayer. 

This procession can sometimes take place outside where it can also act as a way of witnessing about our faith to the wider community.

The procession of the sacrament allows us to show our respect and adoration for God, and our belief that he is in some way truly present in the sacrament. 

The short service of benediction that follows allows us to worship God and shows that we believe him to be really present in the sacrament, in a way that is different to how we sense his presence in our normal daily lives.

So whilst expressing what the real presence in the sacrament means in words can be quite hard, our worship helps us to express our belief in the real presence through our actions. 

Expressing our faith in this way can also be an important way of communicating with those who may not have the ability, for whatever reason, to understand the spoken word. 

Through the actions of our bodies, the use of movement, bells and incense to highlight important moments, all can gain some understanding of complex parts of our faith.

Amen

Why is it called Good Friday?

 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus said it is finished, but we all know with the benefit of hindsight, that there is an encore still to come. But what was Jesus doing while waiting for his final on stage appearance? If it really was finished, mission accomplished, you would think there would be a celebration dinner with the father and the spirit. 

There is a story on social media that a bishop once asked a group of children what they thought happened when Jesus died.  One child answered he went looking for his friend Judas.

Where would Jesus look for Judas, well in the apostles creed it states that Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, he then descended to the dead. In Jewish belief the place of the dead was called Sheol. It was a place of torment because it was a place of complete separation from God. Man has separated himself from God by his actions. According to the gospel's Judas killed himself after Jesus' arrest. What man could be more separated from God than Judas? So Sheol the place of the dead, was where Jesus would have to look for Judas and it wasn't just Judas that was there. The souls of all the dead from Adam and Eve onwards would have been there, the good, the bad and the ugly.

One of the questions I have sometimes been asked about faith was what happens to people who died before Christ, they have never had the chance to know Christ so do they miss out on salvation? Christ's activity after death is what allows for their salvation. By descending into hell he carries salvation to all those that have been trapped there.

In orthodox iconography, icons for Easter often show Christ's descent into hell in order to lead the souls trapped there to freedom. In these icons the souls of the dead led by Adam and Eve are shown being led out of hell. Meanwhile satan is shown either crushed beneath the broken down gates of hell or chained up in his own fiery pit. 

So, Jesus' death on the cross allows him to descend into hell and let glory fill it and the souls of those who never had the chance to know Jesus can be redeemed and led to freedom and leave  Satan defeated.

However the harrowing of hell as it is called has further implications than just redeeming those already there who had never known Jesus. 

The child I quoted at the beginning said Jesus was looking for someone who had known him, his friend Judas. His friend who had also betrayed him. 

We are not Jesus, which means that at some point we also will all fail to act the way that Jesus would want us to and betray him. To an extent we are all Judas. However, The harrowing of hell tells us that Jesus will still keep looking for us in order to bring us to salvation despite our betrayals and failures. 

At the moment of Jesus's death in Matthew's  gospel account, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. The curtain was there to keep people out of the most holy place in the temple, the place that was seen as where God dwelt on earth. Only the most holy people, the priests could access God.  The splitting of the curtain changes that. Direct access to God is available for all, not restricted to the holy few. God no longer dwells in one specific place on earth. Rather he dwells within each of us. 

I have recently read the novel Grantchester, which is a prequel to the Grantchester novels that the TV show is based on about the crime solving vicar of Grantchester, Sidney Chambers. The novel opens with the 18th birthday celebrations of Sidney's best friend Robert. However within a few months they are in Italy fighting in the second world war. There is a priest attached to their regiment, Rev Nev as he is known. When asked how he manages to keep faith with the misery of the battlefield all around him he responds by saying Christ descended into hell, therefore Christ knows what suffering is. 

Whilst thankfully most of us have never had to fight in a war, we do all experience suffering of one sort or another. To be alive is to love and lose, to feel happiness but also pain and despair. Jesus has lived, suffered and died as a man. God is not some wonderful person sat on high who has never known what it is to feel hurt and pain and loss and despair. God in Jesus has known and felt all that and more for our sakes and so he can strengthen and support us to deal with it in our lives.

Why is it called Good Friday when the events are so bleak? Because by facing death and suffering Jesus brought about a new relationship between man and God.  It is the day when Satan thought he would celebrate victory dancing in the fires of hell and instead finds himself sitting in cold ashes and ruins.

Amen

Sermon for Advent 4

Readings: Isaiah 7: 10-16

Psalm 80 :1-8, 18-20

Romans 1: 1-7

Matthew 1:18-25

Advent 4 is traditionally a time to think about the blessed virgin Mary. I wonder what comes to mind when you think about Mary? As a child I must have seen Mary as a figure of some importance as I can remember the excitement I felt the year I was chosen to be Mary in the school nativity play. However some of the first things that come to mind when I think about Mary are terms such as meek, mild and obedient. Yet when I consider things more deeply I realise that these are not really words that sit well with Mary when we really consider her story.

So who was Mary? She was the daughter of Anne and Joachim, but according to the legends she was no ordinary daughter. Anne and Joachim were a reasonably well of couple but had no children. Joachim went into the wilderness for 40 days to pray and was rewarded with the birth of a daughter Mary. This story has parallels to those of Sarah and Abraham and Eli and Hannah, and would have marked Mary out as a special person.

However we don’t really know that much about her background or upbringing. The gospels tell us that she was betrothed to Joseph, who was a carpenter, a skilled craftsman. All probably fairly normal for a middle class girl of her age in that time and place.

Then along comes an angel. Now I don’t know about you but if I was just getting on with life, washing the dishes or whatever one day and suddenly there’s an angel wanting to speak to me, I would probably be a quivering heap on the floor. However in the accounts we have Mary appears remarkably calm. When the angel tells Mary God’s plan, Mary’s first response isn’t to say yes. It’s more of a hang on a minute, can we just have a quick chat about this. She answers back to the angel and questions him, that’s not been meek and mild, that’s more brave and bold.

Of course, as we all know, Mary did agree to God’s plan, but that in itself was yet another brave and bold act. With that yes Mary must have known she was signing herself up to nine months of ridicule, of being the main topic of gossip among the local population. Just imagine what the women would have been saying when getting their water at the well, have you heard about that Mary, got herself knocked up and is saying it was an angel and God doing it? Who does she think will believe that?

And then there was the impact on her relationship with Joseph. As we heard in today’s gospel reading Joseph’s first reaction is to dump her and cancel the wedding plans. Mary has gone from a nice middle class girl to someone shameful that he no longer wants to be associated with. Then Joseph gets his own angelic encounter, although in this case it is in the form of a dream. There was maybe a heavenly assumption that an actual angel may have been too much for Joseph to cope with!

Matthew’s gospel is the only one that records Joseph’s angelic dreams, it is also the only one that tells us anything at all about Joseph’s reaction to Mary’s news. I always feel a bit sorry for Joseph, the bible writers don’t seem to include him much at all. Yet his life must have been turned upside down as much as Mary’s by this unexpected pregnancy.

Both Matthew and Luke give a genealogy of Joseph, although they differ in their details both show Joseph to be descended from King David. In Matthew's gospel Joseph gets to have two more angelic dreams, one telling him to flee to Egypt and one telling him when to come back, and that’s it. In Luke’s gospel he is in the story of the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, the return to Nazareth and the story of the 12 year old Jesus getting lost when visiting the temple, and that's it. It is assumed by his absence that Joseph had died by the time Jesus starts his earthly ministry.

However, I think Joseph like Mary was a very brave man. Not only was he risking the ridicule of the local gossips by standing by Mary and caring for Jesus as his son, he was possibly risking his business as well. After all people may think twice about ordering their new dining room furniture from that Joseph whose gone a bit funny in the head , claiming to have dreams of angels even dragging his whole family of to Egypt on the basis of a supposedly angelic dream. What if he does that when he’s half way through making my table and chairs?

To do the task that God called them to, to be the earthly parents of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had to be far from meek and mild, they had to be bold and brave, to potentially risk everything, family, friends, financial security, and their social status. The young Jesus couldn’t have had two better role models to help shape him and give him the strength for his future ministry.

Their bravery and boldness was rooted in their faith and they can be an example to us today. In a world that is increasingly secular, or even hostile to religious faith, we all may need some of that courage if we are to follow the command of Jesus to make disciples of all men. The great thing is, that we are not alone in this. We are supported by the great cloud of saints including Mary and Joseph. In a few minutes we will be asking Mary to help us, using the words “Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

I for one, can’t think of anyone else I would rather have on my side.

Amen

Mothering Sunday Sermon

Readings: exodus 2 1-10

Colossians 3 12-17

John 19 25-27

May I speak in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost.

Mothering Sunday is a day for thinking about the role of mothers in our lives. Mothers often play an important role in the Bible, not least that of Mary the mother of God. However motherhood in the Bible, as in modern life, can often also involve great sacrifice and tragedy. In our first reading we have the story of Moses and his mother. Moses was born at a time when the Hebrews were ruled by the Egyptian ruler Pharoah. Pharoah like many dictators became a bit paranoid that the Hebrews would rebel against him and so ordered all hebrew boys born to be killed. Moses's mother Jochebad comes up with a very risky plan to save him. She places him in a basket in the river when Pharaoh's daughter is coming. She is risking that the daughter of her enemy will have pity on a small child. The risk pays of, and even better Jochebad is able to offer herself as wet nurse to her son so she can still be with him. When reading this story I couldn't help thinking of the pictures and stories from Afghanistan and Ukraine of desperate mothers handing their children over to strangers as it seems their only hope of survival. Mothers across the world today are still taking great risks to try and protect their children. It can be seen that one aspect of being a good mother can be to protect their child.

Another aspect of motherhood that can be seen in the Bible is the role of mothers to be supportive. This is perhaps most clearly seen in Mary and her support for Jesus and his ministry. Mary still loves and supports Jesus even when others mock him and right through to his painful end on the cross. Loving support that must have cost Mary so much. My own mum always offered me her support, even with activities that when I've talked to her about them as an adult, I've discovered she thought I was bonkers to do. Without that support though I might not have the confidence to be up here talking to you today, of course you might not think that a good thing!

We are more used to thinking of God as father. There are however, also references to God acting as a mother such as sheltering Jerusalem like a mother hen shelters her chicks. God as mother is often seen as a protective role. But I think God also shares some of the other characteristics of being a mother. He supports and encourages us. In Hosea God says it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I who took them up in my arms. He protects us, in Deuteronomy he is described as like an eagle that hovers over it's young, He spreads wings to catch you and carries you. In Isaiah God says as a mother comforts her child so I will comfort you.

God is also prepared to suffer for us and with us. The theologian Jürgen Moltman says that "when we feel pain we participate in His pain." God suffers most obviously through the cross. However he also like a good mother shares in our suffering. There are many other examples in both the old and the New testaments where God is described as being like a mother.

The mystic Julian of Norwich also talked about God as mother. She wrote 

"Jesus Christ therefore, who himself overcame evil with good, is our true mother. We received our being from him and this is where his maternity starts, and with it comes the gentle protection and guard of love which will never ceases to surround us"

We can see that God has within his nature many aspects that we associate with motherhood. He provides shelter and nurture, protects us, guides us and shares in our suffering.

 Motherhood is an important theme in many of the biblical stories. However many stories also have the lack of motherhood or the giving up of a child as a key theme, from Sarah and Abraham, through Hannah who gives her much wanted son, Samuel to serve the lord, to Elizabeth and Mary. The sad truth is that in the world today not everyone is able to have a good relationship with their mother, and not everyone that wants to be a mother is able to be one. A mothering relationship though, does not necessarily have to be a blood one.

Jesus from the cross gives Mary and the disciple John a new relationship, although John I am sure would never replace Jesus in Mary's heart, it gave both John and Mary a new and deeper relationship. This is something I think we as a church today need to think about. We are in relationship with each other as the body of Christ. There may be those among us, who for whatever reason need to be mothered and those among us who are good at providing that mix of support, advice and comfort that a good mother would. We may at different times in our lives be in both groups. However I am not sure we are always very good at either giving or receiving this support. Some may find it difficult to reach out and admit they might need something, others may worry that if they offer something they will be rejected. As a community we need to try and be conscious of the needs of others and also be willing to accept help, support or just a friendly person to talk to when it is offered.

As Christians we are called to try and live our lives in a way that reflects something of the nature of God. This includes the nature of God as mother. This means offering support, advice and comfort in times of need. It also means standing up for and defending those who are weak or unable to defend themselves. Saying that this is what we should do is easy, working out how to do that in practice might be a bit more difficult. Maybe we need to start by building relationships among ourselves that are supportive and nurturing. Our second reading today gives us some ideas for how to do this. Be compassionate and kind, that's the easy part and then it gets harder, be humble, meek and patient, and finally the big one, forgive each other. If someone has upset us, caused us a problem or had an opposite view to us about some aspect of church or our life together, it can be very hard sometimes to forgive. Lent is a season of penitence and for confessing our wrongs and asking forgiveness, we need to remember that sometimes we need to forgive. Paul tells us how to do this put on love and give thanks to God.

Mary and John developed a new relationship and a church based on comfort, support, encouragement and hospitality. This is the model we need to follow today, both as a church and as individuals in our relationships with each other.

Amen

What are we celebrating on Corpus Christi?

Sermon preached on 20/6/2019 at St. Mary Magdalene, Coventry

Genesis 14. 18-20

Psalm 116 10-end

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26

John 6. 51-58

So, here we are again on the feast of Corpus Christi, otherwise known as the one with the strange Latin name.  It is also referred to as the day of thanksgiving for the institution of holy communion. When looking that up on the internet I found that Corpus Christi is also a town in Texas. So what is Corpus Christi about? Well, what we are doing here tonight has nothing to do with a town in Texas.

It is more about what happens every time we gather around the altar and share in bread and wine, body and blood. It's roots obviously go back to the last supper, but it is so much more than that.

The first question to ask is probably what do we call it? In different churches it is called The Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, The Eucharist or The Mass. What you call it can depend on your theology or personal preference. I prefer the term the mass, mainly because I find it the easiest to say! However, I think each name can teach us something about what it is we are doing.

The Lord's supper – This is where it all starts really. That night over two thousand years ago in Jerusalem when Jesus had his last meal with the disciples and uttered those key phrases “This is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me. This is my blood shed for you do this in remembrance of me.” and theologians have been arguing about what he meant ever since. In our gospel reading we heard how Jesus describes himself as the living bread. The Jews who heard him at the time were confused by what he meant. We have the advantage of the rest of the story and another two thousand years of theology, and it can still seem like it doesn’t make sense. I mean how can Jesus be bread and bread be his body and wine his blood? Sometimes we have to accept that what we believe may be based on spiritual experience not scientific fact.

Holy Communion – We gather at the altar as a community, that is at least trying to be holy, even if we, the people here and now, don't always manage it. Yet we are part of a church community that reaches across time and space. Here, in this act of receiving bread and wine we are linked with those that have carried out this same ritual over the hundreds of years of the Christian church, and indeed we do join with the angels and archangels and all God's church to proclaim his glory. We are not just celebrating Holy Communion, we are a Holy Communion, a communion of people and angels of saints and sinners but also a communion of souls that can find their redemption in broken bread and wine out poured, in the body and blood.

Eucharist- The word eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharistia, meaning to give thanks. Sometimes looking at the world around us, at the pollution, at the state of modern politics, the pain and suffering it can seem as if there is nothing to be thankful for. Yet, on the night that he was to be betrayed, knowing what was to come, Jesus took bread and giving thanks, broke it. At the start of the Eucharistic prayer we give thanks, as we recall not just the last supper but all the events of the days that followed, we are reminded again of the fact that God loves us and that as Julian of Norwich said "all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well." We have a God that loves us, that will redeem the world, that is indeed something to be thankful for.

Mass - We move from Greek to Latin, the name mass comes from the final part of the service, the dismissal which traditionally in Latin was Ite, missa est, apologies to any Latin experts if I said that wrong.  It translates as "go, it is the sending". The modern version is go in peace to love and serve the lord. We are sent out from the table strengthened by what we have received. We are sent to go in peace, to try and live in peace with our fellow man. Something that we seem to be losing the ability to do. We need to think about what we say and type when on social media, to engage in honest and open debate, not just trade insults. This may seem hard when someone else's view seems the worst thing on earth to you. Yet we are also sent to love the Lord, and it's not unrequited love. As we love him so his love pours down on us and we in turn can pass that love on to others. Loving God and loving others helps us also to do the third part of the dismissal, serve the lord. We can serve the Lord by living in peace, loving and helping others. However, doing this is not as simple as it seems and we are fallible human beings. In receiving the sacrament of the mass, we are fed and strengthened by the body and blood of Christ to go out into the world to do the difficult task of living in peace, loving and serving the Lord.

So, I started with the question what are we doing here tonight? We are doing the same as every Sunday morning, but with the chance to think a bit more deeply about what we are doing and why. We are remembering and re presenting the reality of the last supper, the cross and the resurrection. We are being formed into a holy communion, not just here in this time and place but with all the glorious company of heaven. We are giving thanks for God and his saving grace and his reassurance that all will be well. We are being fed and strengthened to go out into the big, bad wide world and spread God's love and peace so that in the words of the lords prayer thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen

Some Thoughts on Gaudate Sunday and Why We Have a Pink Candle

Advent 3 16/12/1018

Readings : Zeph 14-end
           Phill: 4:4-7
                  Luke 3: 7-18

May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

We have reached the third Sunday in advent, also called Gaudete Sunday. The more observant among you might have noticed that the advent candle we lit this morning is pink, rather than purple.

Gaudete means to rejoice, yet we are in Advent, which can be described as a mini lent, a season that is supposed to be about sombre reflection. Gaudete Sunday is if you like a light in the darkness, a sign that we have almost made it. Although whether you rejoice at it nearly been Christmas may depend on whether you have been super organised and got everything done,
or if you are in a mad panic at the thought of what you still need to do before the big day!

I don't know about anyone else but I can be rather impatient and find waiting quite hard, especially if there’s going to be something nice at the end of it!

Throughout the history of the people of Israel there seems to be a theme of waiting, but it is a waiting in hope and expectation,
that one day the messiah will come, the oppressive rulers will be thrown down.

Our first reading today was from the prophet Zephanianh,
he was alive in an era when Jerusalem and the people of Israel
had seen a great deal of upheaval. They had been conquered by the Assyrias. Their leaders had worshipped false gods in the Jerusalem temple. Zephaniah is a short book, only 3 chapters long and the first two and a half are about how evil the people are and how the trails and tribulations they are living through are Gods punishment on them.
Then half way through chapter 3 we get a change in tone. A remnant of Israel shall be left that can do no wrong, utter no lies. The song of rejoicing we heard this morning follows on from this vision of a better future.
Ultimately it is a song of hope, however bad things may seem God has not totally abandoned his people and one day all will be well.

In his letter to the Phillipans Paul sounds surprisingly upbeat
considering that he was probably writing it whilst under house arrest and with the prospect of being killed at anytime.
In those circumstances I am not sure I would be calling on people to rejoice! I would be more concerned with them putting together a plan to rescue me, but then I am not a saint.

Paul tells the phillipians to rejoice but he also offers some guidelines for how to behave, let your gentleness be known to everyone pray and don't worry, Reading those words today with all the uncertainty we seem to be facing over brexit, national and international politics and what seems a public political discourse that gets more angry and ill tempered by the day.
What Paul is describing sounds a million miles away from what we are experiencing.

Yet I think what both Paul and Zephanianh have to say is very relevant to us today, firstly, don't give up hope, empires may be falling, it may seem as if we are staring in to a cataclysmic abyss, but God still plans to redeem this mess. So whilst we are in a period of reflection and penitence during Advent, it doesn’t need to be all doom and gloom.

 We can still rejoice because God is coming to redeem all things.
 More importantly we can be a forerunner of that redemption
 in how we live and how we treat each other.

At the time of John the Baptist the people of Israel were again experiencing being ruled by an occupying force. They were forced to submit not to God but to an occupying force, who were throwing people of their land, paying them a pittance for skilled work, there seemed little prospect of improvement.
This is why the people were so desperate for a messiah.
John the Baptist with his charasmatic preaching and counter cultural lifestyle was seen as a potential messiah, a figure of hope, that's why the people looked to him with expectation.
John however tells them that they need to look elsewhere, he is not the one, there is one that is greater that is coming.

Waiting in expectation for a messiah to come and save you from oppression is a bit different to waiting in joyful expectation when you are anticipating nice presents, good food and drink,
time with family and friends and possibly a break from work. Many Christians will be celebrating Christmas in secret, their lives in danger because of their faith. For others it may mean extra stress and worry. Children may be dreading Christmas because it means mum and dad will drink, and then fight.

How can we wait in joyful expectation in these situations? As I was thinking about this last week I came across two tweets,
the first was a response to someone having expressed amazement at how Theresa May could joyfully sing "O come, all the faithful", given her current political difficulties the reply was that's what Christians do.
The second was from the twitter account Slug Soup, a curious group of cuddly frogs and hedgehogs that tweet about soup and philosophical musings. They tweeted
"we have been thinking about joy.
It runs through your life like a deep, slow River;
like a stream of cool air.
It is crystal clear, you cannot always see it but it is always there."

There is a deep joy that comes from having a relationship with the God that gave himself to us as a tiny baby. It is a joy that doesn't need Christmas trees or presents, good food or other material things to be felt. Sometimes it may even be hard to find,
but it is always there if we wait and if we pray in joyful expectation it can be found.

Amen

Corpus Christi: Bread and wine into body and blood with the help of a fluffy sheep

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

 Things may not be what they appear, appearances can be deceiving, don't judge a book by its cover. There are lots of sayings that teach us not to rely on what we see. These sayings still exist despite the scientific age we live in, with it's quest to provide firm evidence for everything.

Tonight we are celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, the body of Christ. During the reformation the Eucharist and what exactly Jesus meant when he said “this is my body” was a major point of debate. The reformers claimed that the bread and wine looked clearly like bread and wine so must be just bread and wine.

 However, as I said at the start appearances can be deceiving. To help demonstrate this point, I have bought a friend with me tonight, meet Woolly the Sheep.

Now, Woolly was a present from some friends a few years ago. Now, I like cute and cuddly things and have a rather large cuddly toy collection. Andrew had told my friends not to give me any more as we had no space. So, when I unwrapped Woolly, Andrew's first response was “what’s that? I said no more cuddly toys!” I then pointed out the label round his neck which clearly stated this is not a toy.

 Andrew responded by pointing that he has a head, eyes, ears, four paws and body, it definitely looked like a cuddly toy. However if you look beneath the outer skin, you will find that Woolly here is missing something key to being a cuddly toy, he has no stuffing! Instead he has a hot water bottle. When Woolly is being put to his proper use you may pick him up and if you don't know the truth get an unexpected warm feeling, which tells you there is more to Woolly than meets the eye.

 Receiving the bread and wine in the mass can have a similar effect. Sara Miles had no intention of being a Christian when one day she walked into a church where a service was taking place. She joined the service and in her book “take this bread” she describes what happened when she joined in receiving the bread and wine.

“I still can't explain my first communion. It made no sense. I was in tears and physically unbalanced: I felt as if I just stepped off a curb or been knocked over, painlessly, from behind. The disconnect between what I thought was happening – I was eating a piece of bread; what I heard someone else say was happening-the piece of bread was the “body” of “Christ”, a patently untrue or at best metaphorical statement; and what I knew was happening- God, named “Christ” or “Jesus” was real and in my mouth -utterly short circuited my ability to do anything but cry.”

Whilst we may not all have the same reaction as Sara Miles did, we all have feelings that go beyond what out five conventional senses may tell us. We may feel a sense of awe at some stunning sight of natural beauty, find ourselves moved by a particular piece of music, or just feel a sense of something other.

 A few years ago I visited Medjugorje in Bosnia, in the 1980's a group of children claimed to have seen visions of the virgin Mary on the hillside there. The catholic church has not yet accepted the place as an official holy site. However, when we climbed up the mountain to the site, where there is now a statue, I had a sense of it feeling like a special, holy place. In the same way when receiving the Eucharist I often have a sense that this is more than bread and wine.

 Thomas Aquinas writes about the concept of a spiritual eye, the idea that there is an instinctive or intuitive power in the human soul that can recognise the presence of the divine. It is this spiritual eye that allows us to perceive that there is more to the bread and wine in the mass than mere physical human sight would suggest.

 If our inward sense is telling us that we are receiving something so special, so holy, what does that mean for us? For Sara Miles, who I quoted earlier, that experience was the first step on a road that was to lead to her becoming a church leader. That might not be the path we all take, but in the simple act of receiving bread and wine, body and blood, by accepting part of Christ in us, we can all be transformed.

 Our spiritual senses experience the presence of Christ and that presence becomes part of us, strengthening us, renewing and reforming us until we all become part of His body, His feet, His eyes, His hands, His strength to go out into the world and do His work. Amen