Someone has analysed the present spiritual state of Ireland as being hindered by 4 distinct failures 1 Sectarianism where religion has fuelled hatred 2 False Spiritualities where any belief or spiritual experience is thought to be as good as any other 3...Sacramentalism where religion has been seen just in being baptised, receiving communion, saying your prayers, going to church 4 Secularism where people decide that they don’t need God, they are doing all right without him. partly because of the failures of the Churches and because of human greed and selfishness.

At least the first 3 of those hindrances can be seen in Samaria in Acts 8 (the 4th one, secularism, flourishes especially when Christianity has become too sectarian or too superficial.)

When Philip brought the good news of Jesus Christ there was an enthusiastic response, many people believed but the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them: what was the problem? The main reason for the delay was the centuries old fear and suspicion that separated Jews and Samaritans, a sectarian division. We see it in the time of Jesus, the Samaritan woman at the well said to him (John 4) 'Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.' In Luke 9, Jesus is not welcome in a Samaritan village because he was on his way to Jerusalem, which they rejected as the religious centre. James and John were so angry they wanted Jesus to call down fire from heaven and destroy that village You don’t get much more sectarian than that It was important that leaders should come from Jerusalem including the very same John who had wanted the Samaritans burnt out to be part of the process of the fire of God’s Spirit falling on the new Samaritan Christians, to bless them not burn them It was important that the basic unity of the Church was demonstrated because a separate Jerusalem Jewish church and a separate Samaritan church would have perpetuated sectarianism and blocked God’s Spirit And today when Christians genuinely meet together coming out of their denominational trenches people often sense God’s blessing in a greater way. Sectarianism is religion without reconciliation and does not please God.

False Spiritualities can be said to be religion without repentance: efforts such as Simon the sorcerer promoted to meet God in an easy and spectacular way; to have a spiritual experience without the bother of having to say sorry for sin and to deal with the things in your life that displease God; to have a sense of controlling the future or controlling your situation so that you have no problems. That is the essence of magic, whether then or now because our sophisticated technological society is still fascinated by magic the desire to manipulate and control so that I am in the centre and other people and God himself will do what I want. Let’s not be deceived; people like Uri Geller bending spoons or Mystic Meg claiming to predict the British Lottery what they do may sometimes work, but what is the long term result? Who gets the glory? Is Christ lifted up and acknowledged? Are people set free to love Jesus Christ and others? Does the Holy Spirit bless their lives? Or is there a deadness where Christ is not known the Holy Spirit is quenched and the soul is not saved? That was Simon’s problem. He seems to have been fascinated by Philip’s personality and Philip’s power another reason why it was fitting for others than Philip to confer the Spirit. Peter saw it clearly when Simon attempted to manipulate the situation with money and buy the Holy Spirit. 21 You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Simon was a confused deluded mixture of false manipulative spirituality and a sacramental approach to Christianity: i.e. he responded, genuinely enough, to the call to be baptised he received the outward sign, but inwardly he was untouched by God in the sense of knowing him, trusting him, following Christ. Someone truly said that Ireland has been sacramentalised the vast majority claim to belong to some Christian church but not fully evangelised so many do not yet heard and believed the good news of a personal friendship with Jesus Christ where one may be sure of forgiveness and of heaven. If Simon is the extreme case of this, actually trying to buy spiritual power; what about the rest of us? Probably every one of us here today has been sacramentalised, we have been baptised, we enjoy church membership but are our hearts right before God? Have we perhaps started sincerely enough, as Simon may have done but in fact we have grown spiritually hard and bitter? Have I for example as a minister ever fallen into the trap of treating what I do as just a job, rather than as a calling from the living God? Or have any of you regarded your membership of the church as membership of a club for which you pay a subscription and get benefits and not as belonging to a living community committed to serve others?

We do not know what eventually happened to Simon. Later tradition says that he became a leading heretic and notorious opponent of Christianity Where Luke leaves him here is as one brought up short by Peter’s insight into his life but we don’t know if he was only concerned to avoid punishment or if there was a deeper concern really to know the living God We don’t know about Simon, but what about each of us?

Peter warned Simon that he is full of bitterness and captive to sin that did not necessarily mean that he had a bitter personality; he may been quite sweet and plausible on the surface (Elsewhere in the Bible bitterness is linked to following one’s own way and missing the grace of God) but in his spiritual roots something had gone seriously sour that poisoned his spiritual impulses and his whole life.

Is there a root of sectarianism in us, however deeply buried? People often say ‘Presbyterian and proud of it’: Should we say that: How about ‘saved by grace and glad of it’? That sounds less bitter. Is there a false spiritual root in us? We want an easy religion that will give quick answers. We want to control, to be in the place of power and somehow our religion has lost the aspect of relationship with Christ Do we too readily take refuge in the sacraments and in outward worship? and Peter would say to us too: ‘Your heart is not right before God’?

There is one simple response if there is any truth in those questions: A short but difficult word: repent, Turn round, go back to God, say sorry. Difficult to do, but in my own experience, if disobeying God brings bitterness and poison; those times when I have repented of some particular thing have brought sweetness and wholeness into my life and I have sensed again the smile and welcome of our loving Father God

Did Simon find forgiveness? We are not told. But it is clear that if you repent you will be forgiven and you will be given a welcome by God just as the father in the story of the prodigal son ran and threw his arms around the returning runaway. And the one needful condition for God’s Spirit to move in power among us is that we each repent.

Lord, in the quietness we lay our lives before you. In your grace and mercy lighten up any corner that displeases you and holds back the full power of your Spirit. Show us how to root out the sources of bitter poison.