Full of compassion, and mercy, and love

First preached as an Evensong sermon at Croydon Minster on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. the readings were The Prayer of Manasseh and 2 Timothy 4.1-18.

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Our first reading tonight was from a book called The Prayer of Manasseh. It’s a little known text. It comes from the section of the Bible that is neither the Old Testament nor the New; a collection of books mostly written in Hebrew and Greek, that dates from before the time of Christ - and that seems well known to him - known sometimes as the Apocrypha or the Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament.

‘Apocrypha’ simply means ‘hidden writings’ and ‘deuterocanonical’ means ‘second canon’, or ‘second collection’, in other words another collection of books in addition to the Old and New Testament.

Some churches, mainly Protestant ones, don’t accept these books as Holy Scripture at all, and others, notably the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches do. The Church of England, as ever, sits in between, stating “and the other [deuterocanonical] books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine” (Articles of Religion).

What does that mean? The deuterocanonical books are not full blown scripture, so you can’t derive doctrine from them, but they are inspired and inspiring as we life out our Christian lives.

As an aside the Church of England does use deuterocanonical books in its services, the Canticle the Benedicite, Omnia Opera – ‘O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord’ - sung at Mattins in the Book of Common Prayer comes from the deuterocanonical text, The Song of the Three Children: did you know that was a book of the Bible?! And the Prayer of Manasseh itself is used daily at Morning Prayer during this season of Lent.

The deuterocanonical books have then a special status, not just works of poetry or myth; and, even if not decisive for Christian doctrine, they can be used in praise and worship.

In our second lesson St Paul warned about straying away from true teaching and frameworks, which is essentially what doctrine is, and that some people may have itchy ears and will believe anything they’re told.

As the writer G.K Chesterton once noted, “When [people] choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

I am glad to say that the Prayer of Manasseh is in no doubt about God, and God’s compassion, mercy and love.

That is the heart of doctrine, our understanding of God.

Doctrine is not a set of unrealistic, rigid rules that we cannot possibly live by; rather it is the distilled wisdom of the ages, drawn from contemplation of God, which releases us and frees us to embrace the compassion, mercy and love of God.

When we cut ourselves loose from that, as Chesterton warns, we can be like a ship with no rudder, drifting around, and unable to cope with the storms that life throws at us. Or we are like a climbing plant that has no trellis to hold on to and wrap around; we sway in any breeze and snap.

Sadly the word ‘doctrine’ has been caricatured and is probably more associated today with the idea of unacceptable ideas being forced on people.

The Creeds that we say each night at Evensong and at the Eucharist are themselves statements of doctrine that articulate our faith and understanding of God, without being contracts with legal clauses and sub-clauses.

Ultimately all doctrine leads us back to God. It is a far more intricate ecology than a legalistic set of statements: doctrine makes its fullest sense when we are at worship, in prayer and acting in loving service, always bringing us back to the very heart of God, made visible in Jesus Christ and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

Manasseh’s prayer is a meditation on the human relationship with God, wondering and delighting in God’s creative power known throughout the ages.

The mercy that flows from God is immeasurable and unsearchable for human beings but is knowable in God’s compassion and mercy towards us. And this mercy extends to God’s capacity to forgive and to be grace-full even when utterly unmerited by us.

Indeed, as Jesus says, the one who sins more knows more the forgiveness of God (Luke 7.47), not that, as St Paul reminds us that we should sin just so we know more of God’s grace! (Romans 6.1).

The task of doctrine is to draw us into the depths of the loving mercy of God. As has ever been the case, there are many distractions and breezes which can appear very attractive, easy or fun, that can blow us off course or blow us over.

A constant recourse to the Divine, loving heart of God will root us and help us to grow. The wisdom of Holy Scripture, articulated in the Prayer of Manasseh, in the proclamation of our patron saint, John the Baptist, and lived out in this time of Lent, is that when we turn earnestly to God in penitence, praise and wonder we will know his forgiveness, compassion and grace.

As the Prayer of Manasseh put it:

Unworthy as I am, you will save me,

according to your great mercy.

For all the host of heaven sings your praise,

and your glory is for ever and ever. (Manasseh 14b, 15b)