The following sermon was preached in Alverstoke church on Sunday 19^th January 2025, on the occasion of the 90^th birthday of his wife, Joy, by The Reverend Humphrey Prideaux who is 89 today, 29^th January 2025. Happy Birthday, Humphrey!

Readings: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11;  John 2: 1-11

The reading from 1 Corinthians 12 includes this phrase:

There are different kinds of gifts … The same God works all of them in everyone.

In 1946, at Christmas, my Mum and Dad gave me a treadle fretsaw; older people will know what I mean.  Wood was scarce, but I got offcuts from Mr Bartlett, the builder. I made aeroplanes, ships, and a mock-tudor doll’s house. I gave this to the four-year-old sister of a friend, David.  With the gifts we have, we in turn become givers; we give gifts for others to use.

In 2002, my wife Joy and I went on a ‘Myers Briggs Personality’ Type weekend. This is based on Jung’s psychology. It helped us. Joy and I learnt about our different gifts. Joy’s natural gifts are in the senses and feelings – poetry, art, a sense of colour and design. My gifts are more with words and ideas. For plans, Joy is decisive, while I hesitate. This was useful self-knowledge:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean; and so between them both you see, they licked the platter clean!

Gifts are given to us – by our genes, birth, heredity, and the steps on our life journey. They are gifts from God and emphasise God’s grace to us, and in us. Everyone has gifts, but God doesn’t do clones. Reflect for a moment: what are your individual gifts? I have a great niece, Lily. She has Down’s Syndrome. She has the gift of drawing vivid coloured pictures. She sells them as charity cards.

Saint Paul writes that God gives gifts ‘just as he determined.’ I dislike his word ‘determined.’  In the 16^th century, Reformers emphasised predestination: that God predetermines our life. This damages people. God does have a purpose for his Universe and for us, but he does not have a predetermined micro plan. God gives his creation random chance. This is freedom. He does not manipulate puppets. Every atom, every living creature responds to him, freely. God totally other, yes, but also God totally present.

We need to take care what words we use about God. He interacts, yes, but he does not intervene, nor interfere. He inspires, he influences everyone of good will. If we get cancer, he interacts with us. He inspires us, and the medical scientists. But he does not interfere directly with the cells. He trusts us, so that we can trust him. He gives us responsibility to interact with him, as free agents. Our retired priest, Alan, is now at 98 the oldest priest in Portsmouth Diocese. He has cancer of the face. The doctor says she won’t use surgery, nor radiotherapy or chemo. She will try the new immuno-therapy. Alan says, at his age he trusts her to do her best. Please pray for Alan and the doctors. A god who intervenes, who interferes, implies an occasional god; in reality no God at all.

The real God is involved everywhere, every moment.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise. Yes, but as verse 3 of that hymn continues: In all life thou livest, the true life of all.

The Psalm set for today includes this:

Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast; how excellent is thy mercy, O God: and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. (Psalm 36.7)

God is always concerned; he cooperates with us. He guides, but does not control. So, prayer is us tuning in to God in our being; our being is open to him, as he, every second, invites us to realize that we are with him.

We glimpse; we see hints of when he is involved with us. When we pray, co-incidences start to happen. In December 1992, Joy and I were in the staff room at Price’s College. I said, ‘What do you do at Christmas?’ Joy replied: ‘On Boxing Day, when I’m on my own, I join The Ramblers on their walk.’ I said, ‘Can I come?’ So, we went on that walk from Wallington. Afterwards, Joy offered me tea back home. That was a big offer, as Joy doesn’t like the smell of tea. The following autumn we got married. Just a small lunch-time conversation, 32 years ago afforded us a glimpse of God involved with us both.  What small events have been key points on your life journey?

Such points lead to growth. The other Friday, my daughter Anne and her family had a booked session at ‘Ninja Warriors.’ (I haven’t time to explain what that is!) Anyway, afterwards they came on to tea with us – fish and chips from The Village Fish Bar. Ollie, now aged 12, ate an enormous plateful. He’s growing fast. His mum and dad say he always seems to need new trainers. Growth. Are you and I growing?  We say, No, and it is true that our brain starts losing cells in our twenties. Einstein was 26 when he published his Theory of Relativity. But the poets in the Bible urge us to grow, to grow in wisdom and in awe of God. Is our Christian being the same as it was 30, 50, 70 years ago? I hope not.

This year in our planned church readings, we are covering the gospel of Luke. He gives us the two great early hymns, the Benedictus and the Magnificat (Luke 1: 68-79 and Luke 1: 46-55). They show us how to grow:

to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.

Archbishop Cranmer is one of my heroes. He had flaws and faults, but he gave us great prose in his Book of Common Prayer. He has Luke’s words in his Thanksgiving: We thank you God,

by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days.

And in the words he uses for his Holy Communion, we pray:

to truly serve thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.

What is holiness? To grow to be more aware of God. What is righteousness? To grow closer to what God wants us to be.

Some Christians focus on our dark side: ‘O God, I am the chief of sinners.’ God replies, ‘Don’t exalt yourself, my beloved child.’ The poet William Cowper was so conscious of sin that he felt he was damned for ever. Yes, some people do become Christian from a sense of sin. But how much better to grow as a Christian from a sense of wonder and thanks! So, we need to ask ourselves: ‘How have I grown in holiness and righteousness, over the last 50, 70, 90 years?’

Because we have grown, you know.

As I said, this is Luke’s year, my favourite gospel. I did it for ‘O’ level. A lot of his stories are not in Matthew, Mark or John. What does Luke intend? Notice how his stories often feature the contrast between two people. Two sons in the story of the Prodigal Son; two sisters, Martha and Mary; two worshippers in the Temple – the Pharisee and the tax-collector. How can we meditate on these stories? I suggest that we are BOTH characters. We are both the faithful hard-working son, AND the one who goes off and wastes his gifts. We are Mary AND Martha, the Pharisee AND the tax-collector. We are both the Good Samaritan AND the one who passes by on the other side. And if that is how we are, that is how others are, like Jimmy Saville. Yes, we are ‘care full’; we do care for others. We are ‘thought full’, for others. And, yes, we are ‘care less’; we don’t always care for them. We are ‘thought less’ sometimes towards them. Cranmer emphasized the dark side. In his confession he wrote:

There is no health in us. 

He’s wrong. In us, there is health, holiness and righteousness. We do thank you, God.

Let me end on a different plane. When Joy and I were courting, we went to stay with friends in Shrewsbury. We climbed a hill called The Long Mynd, in Shropshire.

Some of us are in the last chapter of our life on earth. If we were devout Hindus, we would go up the Himalayas on our own to contemplate. Mohammed went up Mount Hira for seclusion, to receive the revelation of the Quran. In Japan, Shinto pilgrims climb Mount Fiji. Moses went up Mount Sinai alone with The Lord God.  Jesus takes his friends Peter, James and John up the mountain. They have a vision of him transformed.

Mountains fill us with awe. From the mountain top, everything looks small. We feel small in the scale of God’s creation. Down below, the troubles of the city are insignificant.

We each in our individual way have faith in God. The opposite of faith is not doubt; the opposite is certainty. We look forward, in trust. We don’t know what 2025 will bring. Whatever our age, let our Lord guide us up the mountain, that we may see him more clearly, our friend and our redeemer. Amen.