Delivered on Sunday 22 November 2009 in St George's Chapel

Matthew 24:36-42

I'm a bit fed up to be honest. I mean not just one but two handballs. Still you won't see a Renault sold in the emerald isle for a least two years.
Today is the last Sunday of the Christian Year; next week we begin all over again with Advent Sunday. And being the last Sunday of the Year the Prayer Book offers a very special collect, a special prayer. It beings Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, and so for a long time now this Sunday at the end of the year is affectionately known as Stir up Sunday. It is this whole 'Stir up' business about which I want to share a few thoughts this morning. The few thoughts, mind you, are going to appear a bit ragged. The first is what you might call a loosener.
My wife is German. I tell you that because that fact has led me into several curious conversations. What, I am asked when making small conversation somewhere let's say in Cologne, is your favourite sport? Cricket, I answer. Ah yes, comes the reply, a very English game. It doesn't take long - and certainly no more than a couple of mentions of hoops and the miming of what must be the swinging of a mallet - to realise that my German conversation partner has confused croquet with cricket. That established mind you, it's not worth the effort to explain what in fact cricket is. Typically I make a stab at it and then mutter something about having to see it to believe it. There are others who have been much more successful. I'm sure you've heard this elegant description of the game:
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
No doubt, if asked to provide a description of the game, you could produce something more helpful, but you would need to think it out quite carefully. In fact trying to describe the essence of anything is a tricky business. What is cricket? What is faith? Going back to our collect, it begins, Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people. So if we are the people in question, to whom are we being faithful, or to develop that a little more, what is the nature of our faith? What do we believe about the world and our part in it? Now these are big questions, but they are questions that deserve our attention. I'm not going to attempt to provide any answers, all I'm suggesting is that it's important that we take the time to think about these big questions. What do you believe?
This 'stir up' prayer, however, has a specific purpose. Let me read the next phrase: Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works. The whole point about being stirred up is that we are stirred into action, the kind of action that produces good works. It's the end of the year, it's a good time to take stock. In taking stock, we shall need to ask ourselves a simple question - where have I produced good works? It's the end of the year; it's a good time to make some new year resolutions. A spot of thinking: what is it that I really believe? A spot of doing: in which ways might I bring forth the fruit of good works?
The Prayer Book is very clever. It gives us Stir up Sunday and then hits us with Advent. When are we to be stirred up? Now. There is an urgency created. It takes it's root in the belief that the risen Lord will return, at a time only known to the Father. Our second reading captures that sense of urgency with the instruction: keep awake. Given that we have so many cricketers with this morning we could refashion that instruction: keep awake, take guard. Get on with those new year resolutions, now. Take guard.
A couple of years ago, I happened to be at Lord's for a lunch, after which Dickie Bird, perhaps the greatest - and certainly the most loved - umpire told a good story about this time at Leicestershire. He'd run into a spot of bad form and had been dropped from the first team. Anyway, it was 1963 and the West Indies were touring England, that great team with captain Frank Worrall, opening bowlers Charlie Griffith and Wesley Hall, and the unsurpassable all rounder Gary Sobers. With the impending tour game fast approaching the Leicestershire selection committee got together - all thirty-nine them. And despite his bad form they selected Dickie to open. Well, Dickie, being Dickie, got to the ground early and went to look at the wicket. It was covered in grass. So he called out the groundsman and said, Look, we can't play on that, not facing those bowlers on that. I'm not cutting it said the groundsman, I want to see some excitement out there today. And he didn't cut it. So Dickie spoke to his own captain, Maurice Hallam, and pleaded, If you win the toss, put them in. The coin went up, the coin came down, and Leicestershire had won the toss; Maurice elected to bat. So out to the middle went Maurice Hallam and Dickie Bird; out they went without helmets and their only thigh pads being a handkerchief. Dickie carefully took guard, leg stump, he can well remember. Wes Hall, ball in hand, wandered back to his mark. Dickie wondered if perhaps he was going to move the side-screen but no, that was his mark. And as if that wasn't terrifying enough Dickie noticed that there were no fielders in front of him. He looked over his shoulder and there 30 yards behind stood nine slips. In came Wes Hall, Dickie could see the gold medallion swinging around his neck, glistening in the sunshine. But that was all he saw. Next moment there were cheers all round, Well bowled Wes. Well bowled, thought Dickie, what do you mean well bowled? And he looked behind to see only one stump. Middle and off were back behind the wicket keeper. He recalls a certain wisdom in having taken leg stump guard.
It's a good story with a blend of urgency and surprise, and our watchword, take guard. Of course, it's not a perfect analogy. Cricket is after all only a game. Life itself is not, it is a serious business. Which is exactly why at the end of the Christian year, we take stock, and we make new year resolutions. Urgently our collect prods us to be stirred up, to think about our beliefs, and to bring forth the fruit of good works. Stay awake - take guard.