Trinity 13 – 6 September 2020: : Romans 13, 9-end; Matthew 18, 15-20.

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s  Athens

In all of the four gospels Jesus only uses the word ‘church’ twice. The Greek word is εκκλεσία. In ancient Greek the word is used for an assembly of citizens and the word comes from a verb that means ‘to shut out’. So an ekklesia literally means an assembly where those who are not its members are shut out.

Both times this word ekklesia is attributed to Jesus occur in the central section of St. Matthew’s gospel. The first occasion is where Jesus gives to Simon the additional name of Peter, the rock on which Jesus says he will build his church, his assembly of members, his ekklesia. There is something very prophetic in this message from Jesus as after his death and resurrection small communities of faith in the risen Lord began to emerge from Judaism in Jerusalem and the whole Mediterranean region, many visited and encouraged by St. Paul.

The second occasion ekklesia occurs in St. Matthew’s gospel is in the reading we heard this morning. It is basically a passage about resolving conflict, suggesting a protocol for those who feel sinned against by fellow members of the assembly (ekklesia) and how it is to be resolved.

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12th SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 30/08/2020: ROMANS 12:9-21; MATTHEW16:21-28

The F Word – Deacon Christine Saccali

I speak in the name of the Triune God Father, Son and Holy Spirit

How are you? It has been a strange summer and year so far, hasn’t it? When I ask the question, ‘ How are you ?’ most people answer up and down and I understand exactly what they mean ανεβοκατεβασματα, a lovely word in Greek,meaning literal or life’s ups and downs.

Our continuing gospel passage from Matthew, a hinge chapter, set for this week encapsulates all the remaining chapters. Jesus is warning and pointing his disciples to what is to come in Jerusalem. He is also saying that his followers need to bear their own cross with all its ups and downs on the path of life.

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Audio Sermon for Trinity 10 – 16 August 2020

Trinity 10 2020 – 16th August 2020: Romans 11, 1-2, 29-32; Matthew 15, 21-28

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

The same coach that drew into the lay-by to let all of our pilgrim group get a panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee had picked us up at Ben Gurian Airport in Tel Aviv. You may recall what I said last week about the Sea of Galilee – if not there are ways you can double check. From the moment we start our visit the official Tourist Ministry guide is offering us much valued information.

We are travelling from Tel Aviv towards Jerusalem. We begin in the flat plains of the Mediterranean coastline and the journey to Jerusalem is all up-hill, because the city is set in the mountains of the Judaean wilderness. Its height is more noticeable on the day we journey to the Dead Sea – such a descent to the lowest point on earth that your ears actually ‘pop’.

Anyway, this first journey has some interesting commentary from our guide. ‘Look to the right’ he says. No much good really because it is night time. ‘You can’t see what you are looking at because it is dark’ stating the obvious! ‘To your right is the ancient land of Canaan.’ He informs us. This land was occupied by many tribes generally referred to in the bible as the Canaanites. This area of land is also called Syro-Phoenicia where there were cities like Tyre and Sidon.

It was this land to which Moses sent two spies to survey the land to bring back a favourable report. One of the two spies was Caleb, the other was Joshua, the only two people of the original group of the 40 year Exodus, to be allowed to enter this ‘promised land’. It was this land of Canaan. Both these characters are shown in the stained glass windows in St. Paul’s Church (Athens).

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Audio Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Trinity

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Trinity 8 Sermon 2 August 2020: : Romans 9, 1-5; Matthew 14, 13-21

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Jesus feeds the 5000. All four of the gospels record a feeding miracle on a massive scale, though often with the statistics understood in different ways – well, that is the thing with statistics, isn’t it. Sometimes it is 4,000, sometimes 5,000 – sometimes it is just men, other times it is only men recorded, but with a codicil – and women and children as well.

Whatever, it is catering on a massive scale with not much of a food supply – many a Greek Mother or grandmother will know the feeling as she creates a tasty meal from almost no ingredients. But this is undersupply on a serious scale. A few loaves, and maybe a few fish, depending on which version you read.

Imagine if Jesus were to try and do this in our own time – I guess a fine of €20,000 would be slapped on him, especially if there were no masks, social distancing, and sanitizer, and how much cling film would be needed to wrap each piece of bread before distribution. I am jesting of course – because what we have recorded here in scripture is truly feeding on a miraculous dimension.

On the one hand we have the record of the miracle, and it stands for itself; on the other hand we have the joy of how to interpret this. We don’t have a dilemma, by the way. I will not be trying to explain away this glorious miracle, but it in the preacher’s job to give some interpretation for our own context.

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Sermon Preached at St Paul’s Athens Sunday 19th July 2020

Dr. Julia L. Shear

Take my mind and think through it, take my mouth and speak through it, take our hearts and set them on fire.

Two weeks ago, we read to a passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in which he talks about the difficulties of following the law.  I have in mind especially his phrase ‘with my mind, I am a slave to the law of God, but, with my flesh, I am a slave to the law of sin’.  The difficulties of following the law, of course, do not excuse us from working on putting it into practice!  Today, I want to think about what it might mean to put the law into practice on a regular basis.  When I say the law here, I have particularly in mind how it is articulated in one version of the order of service for the Eucharist in the Anglican church.  At the beginning of the service, after the prayer of preparation, we have the summary of the law:

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: the first commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord.  You shall love the Lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.  There is no other commandment greater than these.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

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Audio Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Trinity – 12 July 2020

Trinity 5 – 12 July 2020 : Romans 8, 1-11; Matthew 13, 1-9, 18-23

Sermon preached in St. Paul’s Athens and for the congregation at Thessaloniki. Revd Canon. L Doolan.

The other day we had some water melon – karpouzi. The word it comes from karpos just means fruit generally, and karpoferos means fruitful.

As always with water melon there is the negotiation of all the juicy fruit with the ubiquitous black seeds. A Water melon is indeed fruitful in every sense. Having made on the side of my plate a little collection of the seeds I casually cast them into an unused but soil filled flower pot near me on the balcony of our apartment. I covered them with a bit of the soil and gave them a bit of water. I have to confess I then rather forgot about them, but I didn’t neglect them. Every 2 or 3 days they got a little watering. I am not green-fingered, so I had little or no expectation from my actions.

To my surprise, about a week later, there was suddenly a clump of new seedlings crowded together, with no social distancing, in the centre of the pot. As the seedlings grew and became a bit willowy looking, I gathered up several other pots, all of which had soil in from previous plants that had long since died off. The soil in each of the pots was of varying quality. Some was so dried out it broke into big clumps when I applied the trowel, but more recently filled pots had better quality of soil.

The time came for me to divide up the seedlings before they competed against each other too much for space. I can report that the progress of the seedlings is very variable. Some just didn’t survive the transplant, others look as if they are struggling, a few appear to be doing quite well.

Of course they were different heights and different levels of strength before I planted them out, but the key thing for the growth of all of them was the quality of the soil. The seedlings had an equal amount of sunshine, water and heat, but across the 4 pots the soil was not of consistent quality.

I will tell you if I ever manage to grow a full size karpouzi plant that fruits successfully. Will the karpouzi  plant become karpofero?

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