Sermon-First be Reconciled

 ‘The Reconciliation’ (1989) by Josefina de Vasconcellos at Coventry Cathedral

A sermon given during Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 27th July 2025, the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, based on the text of Romans 6.3-11 and Matthew 5.20-26.

A friend of mine used to give a talk about how we are transformed by Holy Communion. One of his favourite anecdotes was how the late Queen Mother would ring up her Chaplain on Saturday afternoon and ask what the gospel reading was going to be the following day, so that she might reflect on it overnight.

 

Frankly, I was rather relieved that I received no such calls from parishioners yesterday! I must admit to a passing concern about how many of us would actually be here if we had heard the text of the gospel reading in advance! — I would certainly have thought twice about turning up!

 

Jesus says:

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way;
First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

Come to church (or the temple in the case of those who first heard Jesus’s words), present yourself at the altar and if there is ought – anything – between you and your brother – then turn around, go and be reconciled with them – and then come back. If there’s any anger or malice, bad words, unresolved tension between you and your brother, go and seek peace with them – and then come back to worship.

Hmmm..yes (!)….it's an even taller order if we interpret ‘brother’ to mean not just our blood relations but our neighbours, communities and even the whole of humanity. And no less a challenge if we turn inward – and consider the need for reconciliation within ourselves; the shame, regret and self-hatred we might carry when we walk up the aisle.

Jesus says that to carry those burdens silently to the altar as it were – to remember them there - is wrong—and an affront to God. And to do so is to demean this act of worship, to make it hollow.

His words are part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, in which he urges his followers not merely to follow the letter of the law but to embody a life of righteousness—a life of mercy, peace, forgiveness, justice, and love. The Sermon is a practical guide to transformation: not just a set of lofty ideals, but a way of life made real – one made real by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King among others, who were profoundly influenced by it.

 

In the section we hear this morning, Jesus begins by telling those gathered around him that if they want to get to heaven, they have to be even more righteous than those revered as the most righteous people of the day – the scribes and Pharisees – and doing that is even harder than they think – because they haven’t understood the full meaning of the commandments – the law they claim to live by! Thou shalt not kill is not just to be obeyed literally – the commandment belies a deeper truth. Anger, grudges, resentment – all that which harms and diminishes another - has no place in the Kingdom of God; and so it has no place when the faithful gather for worship.

Jesus’ teaching is summarised beautifully – and in no less stark terms – in the ‘Exhortations before Communion’ in the Book of Common Prayer. While their meaning is woven throughout the service of Holy Communion, these passages are not often read in full these days. There are three Exhortations. The first written for the Sunday before Holy Communion is to be offered, the second to be said if pastorally necessary (perhaps if there is great division in the parish), the third read aloud before the celebration of Communion itself. In the textual evolution that has led to our easy-to-follow Blue Booklets, the third ‘exhortation’ is now included as an Appendix – on page 17 if you want to take a picture and study it later. But, like its biological namesake this appendix is something that, I suggest, is no mere vestigial organ – an evolutionary hangover - in the body that is this community at worship. The Exhortation before Communion is an important, if often overlooked part of it.

A text written to encourage us to embody the foundational purpose of this (some might say every) liturgy. A call to self-examination in order that we might reorient our worship – and our lives - away from hollow ritual and draw us into a deeper, authentic relationship with our Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus seems to have had the same objective in mind when he addressed the crowds on the Mount.

“repent you truly for your sins past; [Cranmer writes], have a lively and steadfast faith in Christ our Saviour; amend your lives, and be in perfect charity with all men, so shall ye be meet partakers of these holy mysteries.”

Perhaps we might see these Exhortations as a ‘rule for life’ – a pattern for a distinctive way of living, growing, transforming together as a worshipping community here at St Giles. A community that does not just appreciate the oldey-worldy language of the Prayer Book – but embodies the spirituality that lies at its core and actively demonstrates an outworking of it? Worshipping the right way requires us to live the right way – as Jesus taught.

Which means going out into the world and seeking peace and reconciliation before we come and gather for worship.

Of course we can’t fix this broken world. As our Epistle reading this morning reminds us, we have but one Saviour, who has already shown us, through his teaching and ministry, death, resurrection and ascension how to live righteously – he has shown us the path to follow:

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead... even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Walking in this newness of life means following in the footsteps of Christ, remembering always and everywhere to give thanks that he has conquered sin and death re-membering the relationship between God and humanity – making it ‘right’ again.

 

So as we take that next step on that walk – as we stand to receive Holy Communion today – let us take Jesus at his word and not come silently to the altar carrying the burden of anger, or malice or unresolved tension.

Let us resolve to actively seek reconciliation between us and our brothers and sisters in the days and weeks ahead. Is there someone we need to speak to? A wound unhealed, a wrong unacknowledged? Is there a burning injustice we feel but are scared to speak out about in case the people around us don’t share the same point of view? And what about the pain we carry inside us? Shame, guilt, resentment about our past? How can we be agents of peace and reconciliation in the world if we do not know it within ourselves?

Walking in newness of life isn’t a 100-metre dash. It’s not a race we run to win but a journey of transformation. We’re not expected to fix everything at once. But we are called to take the next step, together.

Maybe that step is sending a message. Making a phone call. Writing a letter. Or simply daring to face a truth we’ve long buried. Maybe it’s naming a hurt, acknowledging a wrong, or choosing to rebuild a relationship we’ve let wither—because forgetting was easier than forgiving.


The scriptures today – and Cranmer’s ‘Exhortations’ - remind us that we are not a people who can turn our backs and forget; especially when we gather to worship. We are people of perpetual re-membrance. So let us re-member our broken bodies, our broken relationships and this broken world piece by piece; fuelled by the remembrance of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Saviour, Jesus Christ through whom this community of faith is re-membered.

Perhaps that is how we are transformed by Holy Communion?

Image: ‘The Reconciliation’ (1989) by Josefina de Vasconcellos at Coventry Cathedral