14th June, 2020.
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My dear friends,

I expect that like me, many of you found the time today to watch the Queen’s Birthday Parade at Windsor Castle on television. Because of Coronavirus, it had to be a smaller and simpler parade, with the troops and band observing social-distancing. Despite the difficulties, I thought the Welsh Guards provided a very smart and impressive Birthday Parade.

The past months and weeks have been very difficult and demanding for everyone in our country. There has been much sadness and anxiety. Many people are concerned about the future. Recent events have reminded us that there is much in British society that needs careful reforming. This is something in which we can all play our part. If we cannot manage big things, we can all manage small things to help and support our fellow men and women.

At the same time, we should not overlook all that is good and valuable in British life, and of which we should be rightly appreciative. I found the Queen’s Birthday Parade at Windsor today a great tonic – I imagined my late father tapping his foot in time to the marches – and at the centre of it all, we saw the gracious figure of Her Majesty the Queen, who has provided our country and the Commonwealth with an example of devoted service since she came to the throne in 1952.
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If you look carefully at the badge of our Order, you will see that around the Maltese Cross there are what are known as the ‘Queen’s Beasts’ – lions and unicorns. These are the ‘supporters’ from the Queen’s coat of arms. They remind us that Her Majesty the Queen is the Sovereign Head of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. I think the Queen is an inspirational figure, and that we in St John are very privileged to have Her Majesty as the Head of our Order.


     With continued prayers and kindest regards,

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
TRINITY 1 – 14th JUNE 2020.
 
Gospel: St Matthew, chapter 9, verse 35 – chapter 10, verse 8
I find today’s Gospel reading very exciting. It is a key moment – indeed a dramatic moment – in the unfolding story of the Gospel. Earlier, our Lord Jesus Christ had called twelve men to be his companions during his teaching ministry. We call the twelve his ‘Disciples’, meaning ‘Those who follow.’ Today, there comes a big change. Jesus sends them out to teach, heal and work miracles in his name. From about this point we start to call them ‘Apostles’, meaning those who are ‘Sent forth’ or ‘Sent out.’ We read:
 
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
 
But why did Jesus send away his friends on a special mission? The answer is because he was concerned for the ordinary people he had met as he travelled around. St Matthew writes:
 
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages … when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”
 
So, because Jesus could only be in one place at a time, he sent out the twelve Apostles to travel around for a while, healing and teaching in his name.

            There are a number of things to note. Firstly, the Apostles were a pretty rag-tag and bobtail lot. They were twelve ordinary men, with varying skills, gifts, weaknesses and failings. People, in other words, just like you and me. They were not chosen because they had studied at the great theological schools of Jerusalem – some of them, clearly, were well read, but others were simple fishermen, like St Peter, their leader. What distinguished them was not their learning, but their devotion to Jesus Christ.

            Secondly, we note that Jesus sent the Apostles out in pairs: Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, and so on. This is because Jesus realised that following him and being his messenger is sometimes tough. As they set off in pairs, they were brothers in adversity. They went out in twos so that they could laugh together, pray, encourage and cheer one another. The point is that we Christians need one another. Who do you know in the congregation, or on the fringes of church life, who might need a bit of love or encouragement?

            Then there is the whole business of Jesus sending them forth. He is repeating what God the Father did to him. At the Incarnation, Christ left the wonder of Heaven, to be born as a tiny, helpless baby at Bethlehem, to share our life on earth, and finally through his cross and resurrection to bring us salvation. Now, in a much lesser way, Christ sends forth the twelve. Just as God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world with Divine authority, so we read in the Gospel that Christ ‘Gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and infirmity,’ and then he sent them out. The men are human, but their teaching and healing power comes, by extension, from the Son of God.

            I suspect, as well, that Jesus was preparing the twelve Apostles for the future. He sent them out for a single mission. We learn elsewhere that they returned, having experienced pretty mixed results. But they came back, and continued to accompany Jesus, even to the garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday night. But there came a time after that, after the Resurrection and Ascension, when Christ returned to Heaven and the Apostles were left alone. Then, filled with the Holy Spirit, they were sent forth a second time. Not on a single mission, but this time on a way of life. They went forth changed beyond recognition by their experience of the Risen Lord. They travelled all over the world – Thomas even got as far as India – preaching, teaching, working miracles, establishing the Church of God. That is one of the reasons why we are Christians, here now.

            We Christians are called to be both disciples and apostles. We are called to follow Jesus Christ closely. We are also called to go and tell people about him, to spread the Good News of Christ. Most of us don’t mind being a disciple, but we are a bit reluctant to become an apostle. Yet, through our Baptism, Christ calls us, you and me, to be apostles and share with others the Good News. This isn’t something that just the Vicar does, but something all Christians are supposed to do. Indeed, some people are sometimes a bit worried about the clergy: they are anxious that the Vicar may say something that will make them feel embarrassed or awkward. (In thirty-two years of ordained ministry, I have never deliberately said anything intended to make someone feel embarrassed or awkward; and if, in order to be of service to someone, I have occasionally had to ask a difficult question, I have always tried to do so kindly and gently, and to be full of understanding ... but that is the topic for a sermon another day).

In the first instance, I firmly believe that ordinary Christian men and women from the congregation are by far the best evangelists. I recall in my last parish, we had a wonderful West Indian lady called Grace, of whom I was immensely fond. Grace took the duties of being an apostle as well as a disciple very seriously. She would turn up to church with all sorts of people whom she had met and encouraged to come to church with her. Sometimes they stayed, sometimes they left after a while. But Grace carried on.

            We live in a society where many people are a bit like the crowds Jesus encountered. He described them as being like sheep. I am sure he didn’t intend that to sound nasty. I expect he meant that they had no shepherd, and that consequently they were getting into all sorts of scrapes and difficulties as they went through life, which might have been avoided.

Now, I want to suggest to you that we are all Christians because of people we have met. It might perhaps have been because of our parents, friends, teachers, or even the occasional priest. They had Christian faith, and somehow they didn’t keep it to themselves but passed it on to us. And we are immensely grateful to them, for think what we should have missed if we had never known the love of God and experienced the friendship of His Son.

We must do the same and share our Christian faith with other people. We must graduate from discipleship – being followers of Jesus Christ – to apostleship – we must become people who spread the Good News.

This is the Lord’s will for all Christians. How we do it will vary enormously. We might make a start by not hiding from people – our families, friends or workmates – that we are Christians and that we go to church on Sundays. We might then look for ways to encourage other people to come to church with us. Archbishop Lang (we haven’t heard from him in a sermon for a while) used to tell the story of the East End lad of about 16 or 17 whom he met around 1905 when he was Bishop of Stepney. The lad worked in a small factory somewhere near Hackney. He started going to his local parish church and was Confirmed by Bishop Lang. When the other men at the factory found out about this, they teased and mocked the lad cruelly every day during their midday dinner break. The young man did not answer them back rudely. But neither did he hide his Christian faith or stop going to church. He answered any questions that were put to him about Christianity as best he could, and turned the other cheek. Gradually, the ragging ceased. After a while, some of his workmates even started going to their local churches. The young man probably wasn’t aware of half of what was going on, but by his faithfulness, words and example, God was able to use him in His service. Wearing my historian’s hat, and remembering that the First World War would start in 1914, I find myself wondering how many of those factory workers served in the Army, and managed to cope with the awfulness of the trench warfare because they were possessed of a faith and trust in Jesus Christ, which had its origins a few years earlier in the words and example of that young man in the factory. God’s work is like a spider’s web or perhaps a jigsaw puzzle: all the bits join together and are interconnected. We join in and are enabled to play our part by having faith and trust.
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It was St Francis of Assisi who once told his followers, ‘Go, and spread the Gospel. Use words if you have to.’ That sentence might be addressed to us today. For, as Christ observed, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’