Sunday May 1st, 2022, Sermon on Easter 3

Who likes maths?

Hands up who does Sudoku?

All right. Are you ready for a maths lesson?

 (Clare Heard – for those of you who are new here today , Clare is the vicar’s wife and she’s a wizard at maths – she not in the congregation today, so this is my chance to try to catch out the congregation on a question of maths )

I want us to focus on the number of fish caught by the disciples at Jesus’s  command.

153

What is the relationship between:

153

And 7, 10 and 17?

7+10= 17

Relationship between 17 and 153?

153 is the triangular number with a base of 17 – that’s objects arranged in an equilateral triangle.

So if I add together 17 to 16 to 15 all the way to 1, the total is 153.

Is there any significance to this?

In Rabbinic theology the number 17 is seen as a perfect number:

10 for the ten commandments

And

7 – the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit as outlined in Isaiah:

You will remember that at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit was seen in the form of a dove

And shortly at Frida’s baptism, Revd Dana will say the words:

“In water your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us from the death of sin to newness of life.”

In Isaiah Chapter 11 there is a list of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The prophet foretells the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon the branch that shall grow the stump of Jesse, the House of David.

These gifts, which we have received at our baptism, we often fail to put to use in our own lives.

You may agree with me that to be reminded of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is helpful and that we pray that they might be manifested in us, in our daily lives:

·        Wisdom or put another way, self-control

·        Understanding – Solomon when asked by God in a dream: What should I give you? replies:

Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. 

May we and Frida have understanding hearts, so that we know the difference between right and wrong.

The other gifts are:

·        Counsel

·        Fortitude

·        Knowledge – Frida’s going to be great at maths and 153 will be her special number.

·        Piety

·        And finally “Fear of the Lord”

What do we mean by Fear of the Lord – to be honest, on first hearing, it doesn’t sound very good, not at this time when we read of people displaying coercive behaviour .

But “Fear of the Lord” sounds better if we see it as a sense of wonder or awe.

Pope Francis puts it like this:

“This is not a servile fear, but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realisation that only in him do our hearts find peace”

As well as the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we also have the seven sacraments – often depicted on medieval fonts – and the first sacrament is baptism which Frida will shortly be receiving.

Going back to 153, it may be that the number of fish totalling of 153 is just an eyewitness account of the number of fish landed on the Galilee shore all those years ago.

But I hope that all of us will not forget 153, the 10 commandments and the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We can also fortified in our faith, knowing that today, Frida is taking her first steps in the journey of faith.

All of us present as witnesses of Frida’s baptism are taking up two of Jesus’s commissions in our Gospel reding to do the Lord’s work:

“Follow me.”

And

“Feed my lambs.”

Fr. Peter Wolton

1 May 2022