Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Trinity – 22nd August 2021:Joshua 24, 1-2, 14-18; Eph 6, 10-20; John 6, 56-69.

Fr Leonard Wallace, St Paul’s Athens

[For the following two Sundays I am present but not the preacher. Next sermon from me is Sept. 12^th]

If you ever have the privilege of visiting Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, home village of the fishermen disciples of Jesus, there is a superb synagogue to be seen there. Though much of the little town of Capernaum from the time of Jesus can be seen in excavation, this synagogue is of a Roman date, later than the time of Jesus, perhaps built in the 4^th century AD. Nonetheless the presence of this ancient building, probably on the very site of the synagogue mentioned in today’s gospel, exudes atmosphere and mystique, the fragrance of antiquity.

Capernaum originally means the ‘village of comfort’, but when Jesus teaches there his message is not such easy listening. His listeners had become complacent in their dependence on the facts of history. Way back in the time of the exile, Jesus reminds them, God had provided them with all they needed for their strenuous 40 year sojourn in the wilderness – specifically referencing the Manna. However those who had been sustained by the Manna all, at some time afterwards, died of all the usual causes. When Jesus speaks of the bread from heaven he is not talking about the same thing. Those who eat the true Bread from heaven will live for ever. This is a shock, and they tell him so.

If the Greek translation is anything like reflective of the Aramaic of Jesus, then even the language Jesus is using can be challenging, for he is really say those who ‘munch’ or those who ‘chomp’ on me will live. He is not even using polite table language.

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Sermon for the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary – 15th August 2021

Fr Leonard Doolan -St Paul’s Athens

Falling Asleep of the BVM – 15th August 2021: St. Luke 1, 46-55

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Today the church universal commemorates a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This celebration is kept by the Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican traditions.

On this date the Orthodox speak of the Eternal Sleep of the Mother of God, and Blessed Mary is referred to in Orthodoxy as Panaghia – (All holy). The Roman Church celebrates what they now call the Assumption, a dogma that is barely 200 years old as currently understood. In Greece this date is always a public holiday (and for those outside Greece, who may not know it – there are many for whom today is their ‘name day’ such as those named Panaiotis (Panos for short) or Maria.

On this date, theologically, the Anglican tradition is more akin to the East than to Rome, and for centuries since the Reformation we have commemorated the Dormition, the ‘falling asleep’ of the BVM.

Blessed Mary is human mother of the incarnate Jesus, the fully human Jesus. We must remember however that in Christian theology this same Jesus is also fully divine, so Mary is mother of Jesus, but at the same time Mother of God, as Jesus of Nazareth is both fully human and fully divine. It is on account of this that Blessed Mary is worthy of the titles ascribed to her by the Church. So she is Panaghia (All Holy) in all three traditions, even if only the Orthodox use this distinctive Greek title.

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Audio Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Trinity – 8th August 2021

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Trinity – 8th August 2021: 1 Kings 19, 4-8; Eph 4, 25-5,2; John 6 35, 41-51.

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

We continue to reflect on the Letter to the Ephesians. Today we are urged in that letter, ‘to be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’. (Eph 5, 2)

Marcel Marceau, born in 1923 and died in 2007, was a famous French actor and mime artist. Some of his greatest artistic achievements were without words, simply mime. He called mime the ‘art of silence’.

When St. Paul urges us to be ‘imitators of God’ the word used for ‘imitator’ in the NT Greek is μιμητής. In the light of God’s glory we should be ‘shadowing’ God, miming his love shown in Jesus Christ – this fragrant offering of sacrifice. Of course we are led yet again to the cross.

In one of the Eucharistic Prayers of the Liturgy (Prayer G) we use the words, ‘form us into the likeness of Christ’ – at this point we should be thinking of the mystery of the cross and how we can ‘mimic’ that cross-shaped life in our own witness and in our own spiritual development.

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Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Trinity – 1st August 2021: Ex 16, 2-4, 9-15; Eph 4, 1-16; John 6, 24-35.

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

One of the books I read on holiday referred to a kaleidoscope – made up of three Greek words, of course, that means looking at beautiful shapes. Mention of a kaleidoscope took me back to my childhood. By the way, I had my 64^th birthday 4 days ago, so my childhood is now so far away that you need a telescope to look back to it. Anyway, as a child I used to be fascinated by the magical formations that the kaleidoscope was capable of creating. I guess I would have the same reaction even now, despite being red-green colour blind.

This is how the author of that book I was reading described it. ‘At the bottom of a kaleidoscope’s cylinder lie shards of coloured glass in random arrangement; but thanks to a glint of sunlight, the interplay of mirrors, and the magic of symmetry, when one peers inside what one finds is a pattern so colourful, so perfectly intricate, it seems certain to have been designed with the utmost care. Then by the slightest turn of the wrist, the shards begin to shift and settle into a new configuration – a configuration with its own symmetry of shapes, its own intricacy of colours, its own hints of design.’ (A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles, Penguin Publications p 174) We will return to this image of the kaleidoscope.

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Sermon for 7th Sunday after Trinity (18th July 2021). Readings: Jeremiah 23, 1-6; Ephesians 2 11-22; Mark 6, 30-24, 53-end)

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Due to holidays there will be no pre-recorded or printed sermon issued for the following two Sundays (25^th July and 1^st August)

Through the prophecy of Jeremiah God has a sound and stern warning about shepherds who scatter the flock. In real life, of course, it is the shepherd’s primary role to gather, to protect, and to care for the flock. In this prophecy there is a direct attack on those spiritual leaders who scatter God’s flock instead of fulfilling the proper functions of the shepherd, the pastor of God’s people.

Division versus unity – a real challenge for humans and for spiritual leaders. Religion so often divides people, nations, families.

This is tackled head on by Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, a city with its temple to the goddess Artemis, and the whole pantheon of gods and goddesses that abounded in the Graeco-Roman world. This contrasts sharply with the monotheism of the religion that had nurtured and formed St. Paul’s life. Judaism stood out as distinctive in the ancient world because of its claims that there is one God, and that the commonwealth of Israel should ‘Love the Lord your God with all your hearts, with all your mind and with all your strength.’

But something has changed in Paul. The focus of his faith in God is now centred on the cross of Jesus Christ, and though not departing from his monotheism, his God is fully revealed in and through Jesus.

This revelation has also revealed what Paul sees as a fault in what he previously believed. Division, not unity, was promoted by his religion. He tackles this eloquently in the passage we have heard this morning, and his language is interesting. We might call his language ‘Paul’s polity through the cross’ or who we are as a people together because Jesus died for us.

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Audio Sermon preached at St Paul’s Athens for the 7th Sunday after Trinity – 18th July 2021

Fr Leonard Doolan

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity – 11 July 2021: Ephesians 1, 3-14; Mark 6, 14-29

Fr Leonard Doolan, St Paul’s Athens

Last Sunday we read from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in nearby Corinth. This morning we have travelled North East, to the capitol of the Roman Province of Asia, Ephesus. The two cities are connected, as it is known that Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus.

Ephesus was not only the centre of Roman Administration of the province, it was also home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world the Temple of the Goddess Artemis who was worshipped by a cult of wealthy noble women who were her priestesses and acolytes.

While in Ephesus St. Paul caused a great stir among the silversmith workers, headed up by one Demetrios. He gathered his fellow craftsmen together, and the artisans and sellers of the little silver replicas of the temple, and, no doubt, silver images of the goddess, maybe earrings, brooches, bracelets and fascinators.

The accusation is that St. Paul has been preaching against the main source of their trade and livelihood, maintaining that gods made with hands are not gods at all. (Acts 19 26). Demetrios was concerned that their temple and its cult would be discredited across Asia – but I guess his main concern was loss of income.

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