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“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Today we continue our series of sermons on the 'I AM' sayings of Jesus from John's Gospel. As most of you will now know, these are a series of powerful statements in which Jesus reveals different aspects of who he really is, and what it means for him to be the Son of God.
More than that, in each of these statements he identifies himself with God in a profound way. He echoes the great declaration God made from the Burning Bush to Moses before God rescued the Israelites from Egypt. Moses asked, what was the name of God that he should give to the people of Israel, and from the Burning Bush God answers “I AM WHO I AM". This is what you must say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me.’” In the Burning Bush, God revealed himself to Moses in a new way, as the One who would stand in a Covenant with the people of Israel; and now in these 'I AM' statements Jesus is revealing himself in a series of new ways. He's giving pieces of detail about who God is and what he means to us.
Today we are looking at the statement - "I am the Resurrection and the Life" - and the context of this statement involves the death of Lazarus: Jesus' friend, and the brother of Mary and Martha, who appear a number of times in the Gospels. Lazarus has fallen sick and then died, and Jesus travels to visit Mary and Martha in their grief. When Martha hears Jesus is coming she runs out to meet him, she has probably been waiting for him, wondering when he would turn up. When she sees him she is clear about her faith in him, she addresses him as Lord, but her statement of faith carries a sharp edge. "If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask". You can hear the criticism in her words, it's implicit, but that doesn't take away the sting.
"But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask", there's a request there as well, and like the rebuke it's implicit, but pretty obvious. Jesus does not take offence at either her rebuke, or her request. He knows the grief and pain she is speaking from. God wants us to speak to him honestly and openly in our grief. God is big enough to handle it; he only asks that we trust in him to answer.
Martha had faith that Jesus could yet save her brother, though she did not understand why Jesus had waited. We have all lost loved-ones at some point in our life, we have all been in Martha's place, and like her we must have faith in God's purpose. Sometimes the answer to our prayers comes in this life, and in other times we must wait and have faith that beyond the veil of physical death God will bring healing and justice to all our loss.
Jesus answers the question that she has not asked and assures her, saying "your brother will rise again", but she doesn't entirely understand. She replies saying, "“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Now, as Christians when we talk about the Resurrection we usually mean, first and foremost, Christ's Resurrection after the Crucifixion, which we particularly celebrate every year at Easter. But Martha here is speaking within the Jewish tradition she is familiar with.
In this tradition the Resurrection was a great and terrible event that would happen at the end of the World, at the Apocalypse. At the end of time, the Jews believed that all people would be judged by God according to their actions. The righteous dead would rise from their graves to live with God forever, and evil people would be destroyed. This, by the way, is still basically the understanding of what the Resurrection means in Islam, it is repeated again and again in the Quran.
In Martha's Jewish understanding at the time, this is strictly a future event. She has faith that Lazarus will be raised at the end of time, when God brings an end to the whole universe and judges the wicked and the righteous, but until then she can only wait; hence her grief that Jesus was not there in time to preserve Lazarus alive here and now. Jesus' reply transforms this traditional understanding of Resurrection. "I am the Resurrection and the Life", he says. Instead of being a hoped-for act of God in some distant future, Jesus is telling her that the Resurrection is here and now, standing in front of her.
"I am the Resurrection and the Life". He is personalising this great final act of God, he is saying it is in himself and through himself that Resurrection comes, right now. He demonstrates this by raising Lazarus from the dead, immediately after this reading, though he'd been dead for four days, though he was starting to rot. Almost nothing could make a more dramatic example of what it means for the Resurrection to be here and now. Jesus goes on to explain what Resurrection and Life in him and through him will mean. "The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” There are two different deaths Jesus is speaking of here. At first we will die, yet live; and then we shall never die.
At first he is talking about our physical death in this age, we know that we still suffer physical death: St Peter died, and St Paul died, and every one of the Saints down to our own family and loved ones have still died. But in Christ death has lost its sting, for this death is not the end, it is merely another step along the climb to greater Life, more enduring, eternal Life; "Life in all its fullness". We cannot now fully appreciate and understand what this will mean, but we can approach it. In our music and worship, when we feel the love and fellowship of friends and family, or out in Nature; anywhere we feel the presence of God, we gain a glimpse of what that life will be like, when we will live in God's clear and direct presence forevermore. In moments of surpassing beauty and peace, when briefly it seems our cares have fallen away, we get a glimpse of what that life is like.
Have you ever been looking forward to going somewhere on holiday, and then you go and it's even better than you expected, more joyful, more carefree, more beautiful? Have you ever been waiting at a train station or a bus station for a loved one to return after a long absence? Have you ever sat there surrounded by concrete and dinge, waiting for someone you love more than life itself, and then finally they appear, and you run to hug them and hold them, and its like the sun comes out and the air is clear, and for a moment there is nothing but joy and safety and relief. These things reveal to us in part the Life that God is giving us. Saints and Mystics have experienced it too in another way, as sheer bliss, indescribable bliss, that comes from seeing God with the mist between us totally fallen away. Even for mystics, in this life, that perfectly clear vision last only for moments; but Jesus makes clear that through him that true life is destined to endure, saying "whoever lives by believing in me shall never die".
We must realise though that this Life, with a capital L, this Resurrection, is not just something that happens after we die, or at the end of the Universe. No, Jesus says, "I am the Resurrection and the Life". The Resurrection was there standing and speaking with Martha, in a village outside Jerusalem. From the moment of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, and then more so once his ministry began in Galilee, the Resurrection and the Life was happening and is happening still. Jesus does not point us to the Resurrection, and the Life, he does not point us towards God; he is God, he is the Resurrection and the Life, and through him we can be part of that Resurrection today and everyday.
We grow as children and teenagers, and our bodies and minds develop, and we think that we are done growing and developing. But with God we are still children, however old we get, and if we have faith in Jesus, if we follow where he leads, then every day we can grow, we can experience resurrection and enter into new and deeper life. The Resurrection is happening all around us, if we follow Jesus, if we put our trust in him, then we can grow and grow.
Martha and the Jews were expecting the Resurrection and the coming of the Messiah, as some future event where God would flip the world upside down, overthrow their enemies, condemn the wicked, and make everything right. They thought they just needed to stay as righteous as possible by the Law, and keep out of trouble until that day. But Jesus was telling them, No, the Resurrection is in me! It is standing in front of you. It is among you, here and now, with God's own terrifying power, and that power will spread from Jesus to every willing heart that trusts enough to follow where he led. Our Resurrection means that we are called, one individual soul at a time, to walk his journey of service and sacrifice, and so spread new life from soul to soul.
And we know how this was done: Christ shared in our death, even so we could share in his Resurrection. Remember what he says in this reading, "The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die." Martha may not have understood this at the time, but she, like the other disciples, understood after Christ's own Resurrection. Christ lives, even though he died, and now he shall never die. But this was not a piece of divine showing-off, God was not doing this to prove he could, but as the first step in spreading resurrection to us all. In the words of St Paul, Jesus is "the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep", the evidence of the greater harvest to come, so through him we may enter into true life, that does not start after we've died, but from when we first accept Christ, and grows whenever we turn to him.
The Bible makes clear that one day Christ will return in the same way he left us, and there will be a final Judgement, and it will be great and terrible. So why does God delay? Only God knows for certain when and why. But we do know that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so through him the world might be saved". God does not want to destroy the world, he wants to save it. So I suspect God delays so the Good News may grow and spread, that more people may have a chance to know Jesus of their own free choice and be saved; that people on continents and in countries that Martha could not have imagined may first experience the Good News of Resurrection in their own lives. God's Kingdom is like a seed that falls to the ground and is buried, but then it sprouts. That means it grows inch by inch, first a fragile seedling, then a slender sapling, and finally a mighty tree, whose branches and leaves grow and spread. Sometimes frost or drought or disease may delay the growth, but through the power of God the final result is certain.
At the end of his astonishing statement, Jesus challenges Martha, "Do you believe this?", and she responds in glorious style, "“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Amen to that. Martha's statement is an amazing declaration of faith, but faith only begins with the mouth; if it means anything it needs to carry on throughout the body, into the brain and the thoughts we have, into the heart and the love we have for others, into our hands and feet, and the work we will do to serve and support the people around us.
In any community, one of the greatest dangers is complacency and inertia. Do we become static, sedentary and sluggish, or are we being filled each day with new energy through the Holy Spirit? Resurrection means new and transformed life, if we are brave enough to embrace it, if we are willing to rely on God's strength, that is so much greater than our own.
So what risks are we prepared to take? Which new people are we prepared to trust? What new ideas are we prepared to embrace? Do not be afraid. Though we face uncertainty and danger in this world, the victory of God is certain, so there is no need to be afraid. But also, we must not be complacent. God gives us time, so beauty and love may grow and spread, but not so we can waste it. Let us never hesitate from doing good, but embrace the chance; let us not delay in reaching out to people with the Good News that God offers, but speak out today. In every thing we do let us bring our best efforts to God, knowing he deserves nothing less; and knowing that God will bless the gift, however humble it may be.
Amen.
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of
you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:
“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
Today is Trinity Sunday and our
reading follows on directly from the reading for Pentecost we had last week.
Last week we heard about the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured
out on the Jesus' disciples and they were blessed, praising God in many
languages. In response to this a crowd gathers around them wondering what is
happening, and Peter addresses them as we have heard. This is perhaps the first
Christian sermon, and it is rather humbling to be following in its steps today.
It is also a great reading for
Trinity Sunday, because here he talks about all three persons of the Trinity:
God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit being present and active in
the events of Easter and Pentecost, and through the three persons of God we are
carried up and included in God's great work, with the Spirit within us, the Son
beside us, and the Father above us. Humanity is the 4th part of this, called to
be part of Christ's body, and so surrounded by God.
In the Gospels, the disciples
often struggle to grasp what Jesus is telling them will happen, but here after
time with the resurrected Jesus following Easter, and with the Holy Spirit
newly come upon them they finally understand God's plan to build his Kingdom.
Here we see the very earliest Christian theology, the attempt to wrestle with
the astonishing things that the Disciples had seen. And the understanding of
God as a Trinity of persons is at the very centre of that from the beginning.
People sometimes struggle to
understand the idea of the Trinity, and they use all kinds of odd analogies to
compare God to things in our world. But while we should try to understand this
idea, we must remember that we will never fully grasp the nature of God with
our mortal, limited minds. But thanks to God revealing himself to us we can get
a partial view of his eternal nature "as in a cloudy mirror" .
This is profound and fundamental
stuff, and we should not expect it to be entirely simple, just as the world we
live in, the universe we live in, can be complex and paradoxical. The more
Science delves into the fundamental nature of physical reality, the more
astonishing it seems to be. When I was at university, we studied Einstein's
theory of Relativity: did you know that if you travel fast enough, time
actually slows down, from your perspective, but not that of the people around
you? Did you know that gravity also actually slows down time by distorting the
fabric of space around massive objects? Did you know that at very small sizes,
quantum sizes, physical matter acts like a wave and can diffract and refract
the way lights does when it shines through water? Did you know that
mathematicians study different sizes of infinity, and that if you add one
infinity to another, it's the same size, but if you take an exponential - say
two to the power of an infinity, you get a larger infinity?
Now, you may wonder why I'm
getting off the topic, but I promise you all this is relevant, because, as
C.S.Lewis once said, we should not expect spiritual reality to be any less
complex and bizarre than physical reality; we should not expect Theology to be
less wonderful than Physics. Indeed, it is from that spiritual reality, it is
from God, that the complexity and beauty of the physical world originates.
"The heavens declare the Glory of God, and the skies display his
handiwork", as the Psalms say.
And when we are talking about the
Trinity, we are talking about the Special Relativity, or the Quantum Mechanics
of Theology. There's lots of things about God, lots of true things, that even a
small child can understand; just like there's lots of things about the natural
world, about the Sun and Moon and stars, that anyone can grasp. But with the
Trinity you're getting into the heart of things, the fundamental reality that
everything else comes from: and that is going to start stretching us.
So why do we describe God as a Trinity? Well, because it is the only explanation that fits the evidence. In Physics, Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics were nobody's first guess. Nobody invented them because they seemed sensible or common sense, or because they're what you come up with if you just sit down and try to be reasonable about it. No. They are complex, counter-intuitive ideas that are demanded by the facts we have gathered through experiments.
In the same way, the Trinity is
nobody's first idea of what God is like, it's not common-sense, it's not the
sort of theory you come up with if you just sat down and made something up. But
it is beautiful, and it is the truth. It is the understanding the Apostles, and
the generations of Christians who came after them, put together because it
seemed the only one that fit the facts they had experienced. So, what sort of
facts are those? When we seek to
understand physical reality, we get laboratories and telescopes and a lot of
equipment, but we can't do that with Spiritual reality. God is not an object to
be measured and weighed, but he is a person, three persons in fact, and because
we are persons too, made in God's image, we can experience him because he has
revealed himself to us. This is the type of evidence that we have, it is the
kind of evidence you have that someone loves you, it is the kind of evidence
you have that music is beautiful; or that life is worth living: it's the
experience of the heart, the spirit and the soul, of one person revealing
themselves to another. It is the type of evidence that, in the end, really
matters.
So what facts led to the
understanding of the Trinity: that the one God, the creator of all things,
exists in three persons, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Firstly, was the
experience the Apostles had of Jesus himself, that here was a man who spoke of
God as Father, as separate from him; but who also did miracles, forgave sins on
his own authority, commanded the wind and waves to obey him, who fulfilled the
prophecies about God coming to his people, and revealed God's Kingdom as though
he knew its every detail. Here was a man who described himself as the Son of
the Father, who alone reveals the Father - The Way, The Truth and the Life. And
they had witnessed the Father honouring Jesus as his Son, most gloriously
through his Resurrection. This was a man, but this was not just a man, this was
Emmanuel - God-With-Us.
So there was God, who Jesus had
revealed to the apostles as the Father, and then there was Jesus his Son, two
persons of God: but there was also a third. There was the Holy Spirit that had
been poured out onto them, whose power they felt moving within them, speaking
to them. This was not the Father, for the Father exists infinite and eternal,
beyond time and space and our physical universe; and it was not the Son, it was
not Jesus, who they had seen ascend into heaven; it was a third person of God
that they were all experiencing resting in them, filling them with courage and
understanding. This is the reality that generation after generation of
Christians have lived with, through struggles and triumphs and losses; and the
reality we can only explain through the idea of the Trinity: the Father who
created all things; the Son who walked on our earth and lived our life and bore
our hurt; and the Spirit who dwells every day within us.
It is important to realise that
this is not just a New Testament idea, either. God did not become Trinity when
Jesus was born, or baptised, or resurrected. God has always been Trinity, from
eternity to eternity, and that is written throughout the Bible, from beginning
to end. It is easy for us to look for the Trinity in the New Testament, but as
well as their own experiences, the Apostles and early Christians looked into
the only Scriptures they had: the Hebrew Scriptures, that we call the Old
Testament. And we can see that in the reading today: Peter makes clear what the
Father has done through Jesus at that time, but to explain this to the people of
Jerusalem, Peter looks back to the Old Testament scriptures they knew so well.
Firstly, he claims the promise of
the Prophet Joel that God, "will pour out [his] Spirit on all
people", that "sons and daughters will prophesy" and "even
on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit". Then he
quotes from the Psalms: notice here that Peter is saying it is Christ himself
speaking in that first psalm. When it says "I saw the Lord always before
me, because he is at my right hand", that is Christ, the Son, talking
about his Father, though David wrote the psalm. We know this because he refers
to himself as the "holy one" who will not be abandoned "to the
realm of the dead", but as all Jews knew, David sinned, and he died, and his
tomb was known. It is Christ who was resurrected. Then in the second psalm it
is not Christ speaking, but David being given a glimpse of the Father
addressing the Son: "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand".
David was the King of Israel, he had no Lord except God, so who are these two
figures: The Lord addressing David's Lord? They are the Father and the Son.
The New Testament is not some
dramatic left-turn away from the path taken by the Old Testament, rather it is
a reflection on a thousand years of God's promises to his people; and whether
it's the Gospel, or here in Acts, or Paul's Letters, it declares with one voice that the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, spoke of Christ. This
is one of those things that sounds strange at first, but when you know where to
look, you start seeing it everywhere. Now, when I say the Old Testament speaks
of Christ, that could mean two things: firstly, it could mean the Old Testament
prophesied and promised that Christ would come. It certainly does that, if
you've ever listened to a 'Nine Lesson and Carols' service at Christmas-time
you have heard a highlight of points in the Old Testament when Christ's coming
was promised; or you can read Isaiah chapter 53, the Suffering Servant, and I really challenge you to
tell me that passage isn't describing Jesus, though it was written 500 years
before he was born.
So the Old Testament promised
that Christ would come: as Emmanuel, God-With-Us, and Jesus fulfilled those
prophecies. But, just as important for understanding why we have our doctrine
of the Trinity, is the fact that God the Son, who has existed from eternity,
and was born in Bethlehem as Jesus, Mary's Son; also appears in the Old
Testament, again and again. He appears, as a separate person from God the
Father; and he is recognised as God, by people in the Old Testament. In the
same Old Testament that famous declares that "the LORD is our God, the
LORD is one", the same Old Testament that is the source of Monotheism, our
belief in One God, that we share with Jews and Muslims, and Sikhs and others.
In the Old Testament, the Son
appears most often as a mysterious figure identified as the 'Angel of the
Lord'. Do not be fooled by the word 'angel' though, for this is no mere angel,
but rather one who is sent by God to save and teach his people, who speaks as
God, and is recognised as God. If I were to go through all the times this
happened, I would be here all day, so I just want to briefly talk about two of
the first examples in the Old Testament from the book of Genesis.
Hagar was the maidservant of Sarah,
the wife of Abraham, but because Abraham and Sarah had no children, Abraham
took Hagar as his wife as well, and Hagar became pregnant with a son. But Sarah
then was jealous of Hagar and so mistreated her, leading to Hagar running away
into the wilderness. There the Angel of the Lord found her in the wilderness
and told her to go back, and promised her that God will bless her son and make
him the father of a great nation. This is how she responds (in Genesis 16:13) -
"She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who
sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”" Hagar has
spoken to the Angel of the Lord, but she knows she has seen God. Who is this
God, who comes as the messenger from God?
Then two generations later we
have Jacob, Abraham's grandson, and he had run away from his family because he
was afraid of his brother Esau. Now years later he is returning to his family
with his wives and children, afraid that Esau will attack him. The night
beforehand though, he has a strange meeting: a man appears from nowhere and
wrestles, physically grapples with Jacob through the night, until morning is
about to come, then the man touches Jacob's hip and dislocates it. The man then
says to Jacob "“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you
have struggled with God and with man and have overcome.”", he blesses
Jacob and then disappears. Jacob is in no doubt about who he met, like Hagar he
says (in Genesis 32:30) "So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is
because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
I could quite literally go on and
on like this for some time, there are so many examples, and when you realise
what you're looking at, they're so clear. John's Gospel tells us that
"nobody has seen the Father", except the Son. So who is this God, who
comes from God the Father, who meets us face to face, who brings God's blessing
to Hagar, and to Jacob, and so many others throughout the Old Testament? He is
the Son, who in the fulness of time was born in Bethlehem at the first
Christmas, and ever since we know as our Lord Jesus Christ, who unites our
humanity with God forevermore. But God has always been Trinity from the
beginning. That is what Peter is talking about in our reading today, that was what
Jesus meant when he claimed that the Law and the Prophets all pointed to him,
and that has been the Christian faith from the beginning.
Why does this matter though?
Until we see God face-to-face in heaven none of us can fully comprehend how the
three persons of the Trinity relate to each other, or how they share a Will and
Purpose as One God. But this is not just a matter of abstract theology, it
matters because it is at the core of what God has done for us. God became one
of us and died for us; God's Holy Spirit dwells within us. That is amazing, and
if we did not believe God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we could not say it
was true. It was not some prophet or spirit somewhere between us and God who
became man and died for us, it was God himself. It is not some mere blessing
from a distant God that lies upon us, it is the Holy Spirit, God himself, who
lives within us. It is this that makes the Christian faith unique.
Islam, the Muslim faith, is in
many ways like Christianity, it is based on belief in One God, that is believed
to be the same God described in the Old Testament. But it differs from
Christianity in this one crucial point: Muslims believe that it is not possible
that God could have been born as a man and died for us. Islam believes that to stoop
so low, as to be born in a stable, and to die on a cross, would shame God,
would make God less.
We believe that it makes God
more. We believe that God is so glorious that by being born as a Man he makes
humanity and our whole world holy. We believe that it proves God is even
greater than we imagined, that he could face death on the cross and make it no
shame. We believe God showed greater love than we could imagine, because he did
not scorn our weakness. We believe that the martyr who sacrifices his own life
triumphs nonetheless, because the Holy Spirit within him is more powerful than
any physical force or violence. It is this faith that allows Peter, in our
reading today, to speak with such astonishing confidence, as he does again and
again in Acts, knowing that the power of mobs and armies and kings is nothing
before the power of Jesus Christ.
Christ changes everything, he
changes lives, and whole societies; he is the sure and certain rock around
which everything else in this world must turn, because he is God. Through the
Holy Spirit there is nothing we need fear, for the power within us is greater
and more enduring than any in the world, because he is God. And all this comes
from the Father, who is the eternal source and creator of all things.
And for that, Amen!
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| From the Becoming Beloved Episcopal community https://dsobeloved.org/acts-61-7-the-first-order-of-ministry/ |
Acts 6:1-7.
"In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So, the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith."
Today's reading has always been special to me, because it introduces St Stephen, my namesake, into the Bible. Every Boxing Day, after Christmas, I enjoy wishing people a Blessed St Stephen's Day, and take pride in sharing my name with the first Christian martyr: the man who died as Jesus died, only later in this chapter, praying, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them", and so setting an example for all of us who come after. And still today, sadly, Christians around the world face martyrdom: not here in Britain, thankfully, but in Sudan, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, China, North Korea, India, Burma, and elsewhere. And we should never forget it. When I hear how Christians in North Korea, or Pakistan, or Somalia, carry on today in the face of the danger they live with, I remember the courage Stephen showed at the end, and I know the same Holy Spirit that was with Stephen is still with Christians today.
I have sometimes thought, how would I react, if I was threatened with death for my faith, the faith I have lived with for 30 years. I don't know, I really don't know; I don't think anyone can, truly, definitely, unless they ever find themselves in that situation, and I pray we never do. But we certainly will be faced with many smaller, more mundane situations in our day-to-day lives, where it still takes courage to stand up and do what is right. I pray that when faced with these at least, I will pass the test, and so, in my small way, be worthy of those ordinary Saints who face far greater challenges for the name of Jesus Christ, and remain faithful.
Which brings us back to our reading today: it may seem small, mundane, administrative, but it reflects the same courage that the Apostles show throughout the Book of Acts and the life of the early Church. These are people who have seen the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, and because of that, they are not afraid. I strongly believe that courage, the courage to have good principles, and stand by them, is something we must cultivate, and apply, in situations large and small. It's very hard to develop courage, to develop integrity, when you're really challenged, if you don't make it a habit in situations every day.
So, what courage did the Apostles show here? First, we must understand the situation, which isn't as easy as it could be, because the account is so short of detail. When you have a very small group, one already united around a shared cause, consensus is easier, but once that group starts growing, you start to get subgroups form, you start to have problems with communication: and that is when you start to need more structures and organisation. The believers in Christ are just reaching this point. They are still in Jerusalem, they are still almost all Jews at this point, but the community is large and diverse enough that two distinct groups are becoming visible.
The Hebrew Jews here, would refer to those Jews who lived in the Holy Land itself, like Jesus, maybe from Galilee itself, or elsewhere. They would have come from Jewish majority areas, and lived a life immersed in Jewish religion, culture and assumptions. They would have spoken Aramaic, the common language of the middle east at this time. Hebrew itself had become a language purely of scholarship and religious tradition when Jesus lived, like Latin in medieval Europe. They would also have taken pride in the fact they lived in the Land that God gave their ancestors, a Holy Land indeed, their homeland, the old-country.
The Hellenistic Jews were those Jews whose families had lived out in the Diaspora, the world outside the Holy Land: in Syria, in Egypt, in what is now Turkey, in Greece, and beyond, all areas, at that time, where Greek formed the shared language, and were heavily affected by Greek culture and civilisation, as well as native influences. These Jews would have grown up as a minority surrounded by Gentile culture, and so while still very much Jews and devoted to their religion, inevitably they were more influenced by Greek philosophy and ideas. You see this influence in the New Testament itself, which is written in Greek, and which, particularly in the Gospel of John, displays a fusion of ideas from Greek Philosophy and the Hebrew Old Testament. For these Jews the Holy Land was a distant idea, something they revered, but not somewhere they lived. There are many obvious comparisons to minority communities like British-Indians or Irish-Americans, or many others, who still, of course, retain an attachment to the culture, religion, food, language, of their ancestral homeland. And there are British communities scattered abroad, as well, who remember Old Blighty, particularly in places like France or Spain or Australia.
At this time in Acts, before the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, Hellenistic Jews would still have tried to travel to Jerusalem to the Temple for the major festivals when they could, in a similar way that Muslims today go on pilgrimage to Mecca. And indeed, some having grown up in the Diaspora would move back to the Holy Land permanently, hoping to die and be buried there, which, if you still follow me, is how we find a community of Jews who are Hellenistic Jews, by culture and background and language, but living back in Jerusalem, and becoming part of the community of the very first Christians.
The problem is there was clearly still a cultural divide between Jews of the two different backgrounds, which even the fact they had both come to faith in Christ, had not resolved. This first Christian community is inspirational, but it still faced problems, squabbles, divisions, like we do, because it was made of human beings, like us. And though we must always struggle to do better, to learn, to change, we will not be made perfect until we come before Christ in his Kingdom. That this first Christian community had problems like this is not surprising then, but what is inspirational, what is a lesson for us today, is the courage with which they faced up to it.
When there are problems and divisions in a community, and there will be, it is easy to try to ignore them, to sweep it under the carpet. It is easy to pretend the problems aren't there, and to hope they goes away; after all, who needs another problem. And the problem might go away on its own, sometimes it does. But if we take that route there is a risk that the problem will fester, and worsen, and because of that, people become discouraged and disheartened. They may even drift away. After all, who wants to be part of a community that does not listen to their problems, that does not take their concerns seriously? That's not good in a family, it's not good in a marriage, and it's not good in a community.
It takes courage, just to speak up about a problem. It takes courage to challenge those in positions of authority and leadership, rather than just sitting on an unhappiness, or maybe drifting away without ever speaking out. And it takes courage for leaders to listen, to try to understand rather than just becoming defensive, to give a situation the consideration it deserves, and to respond. It can always be tempting to barrel on with what we already think is important, and so miss the concerns and warnings around us, but if we do that we build our house on sand.
The Apostles are faced by complaints of an unhappiness, an injustice, and they act decisively to solve it. They don't just say, "well, stop doing that then, stop overlooking those widows", they act imaginatively, creatively, to change and adapt their community to solve the problem permanently, and ensure all the people are being served. They prioritise, they don't give up their position of leadership, they don't allow themselves to get distracted from the most important work they have: sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone who will listen, but neither do they hoard power or responsibility.
They immediately widen the circle of leadership (on a secondary level); they don't even keep the right to select the people who will be placed in charge of this important ministry. No, they trust their community: they empower the people who are unhappy, and the rest of the community as well, to select people to put the situation right. That takes real courage, giving control always does, but it can be very rewarding. If it empowers new ideas and new individuals in a community, it can release a lot of energy. It is how communities grow and develop, and raise up new leaders who then have the chance to excel themselves.
This is also the time to remember the cultural divide that I described earlier, between the Hellenistic and Hebrew Jews. You've got to remember the Twelve Apostles were all, or almost all, Galileans like Jesus. That made them Hebrew Jews, the community who dominated leadership up until now, and who were being complained about, basically. The men picked by the community as Deacons, the first Deacons, all have Greek names: they were probably all Hellenistic Jews, the community complaining they were being treated unfairly.
It would have been easy for the Twelve Apostles to have taken umbrage on behalf of their sub-community. They could have said that Jesus was a Hebrew Jew, that he appointed Hebrew Jews as Apostles, that the Hellenistic Jews were lucky to even be accepted into their community. But they didn't. They didn't just hand away power and responsibility by accepting other leaders, they didn't just give the choice of those leaders away to the community; they put people of the unhappy, discriminated-against minority, in charge of putting it right. That takes even more courage, and indeed leadership.
When you put trust in more people you give those people the chance to repay that trust, with interest, and Stephen certainly did: his dignity in the face of death, his grace towards his persecutors, was an eloquent testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit that had set him free, and still sets people free today. Trust people in small things and they may go on to great things, as the mustard seed of faith grows into a mighty tree. Of course, these lessons do not only apply to people in formal leadership in churches, but everywhere: at work, at home, at school, in our charities and our community groups. Leadership is not just something for a few people at the top, but something for everyone to show in small ways. If you propose a new idea, if you speak out on behalf of other people who are unhappy, if you take initiative to support even one person who is struggling or being treated unfairly, that is leadership. The people complaining in this passage are anonymous, but being the first person to point out something isn't right, to put your head above the parapet, that takes real leadership, and courage too.
It takes courage to give away responsibility to others, and it also takes courage to take on responsibility, to put yourself forward, to lead and serve your community. Courage is best rewarded by more courage in response. When people raise a complaint, listen to them fairly, really listen, and consider what they have to say. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them, but you owe them a decent explanation. When existing leaders ask for help, step forward, take responsibility, like Stephen and the other Deacons in our passage today; give whatever you have to give. God gave us all something: some strength, some skill, some energy, and you only know what you're capable of, if you have the courage to reach out and try, to stretch yourself, and risk failing.
The Apostles were faced with a problem in their community, a complaint, an unhappiness. They could have denied it was a problem, they could have been defensive about their identity, they could have prioritised hoarding power, decision-making or responsibility. But they didn't. They dealt with it rapidly, openly, structurally and generously. And in doing so, they unleased the energy of their community to go from strength to strength, to reach more people, and "so the word of God spread". This is a great passage here; I wish I could take it to work, and hold a Bible study with all my layers of managers and bosses, then we might really see some progress.
I pray we will have the same courage to change and adapt to the new challenges we face as the world, and our community, changes around us more rapidly than ever. I pray we will continue to prioritise reaching people with the word of God, in all the different ways we can imagine; but that we will also ensure we are serving the physical, mundane needs of our community, making sure nobody feels left behind. I pray that we will have the courage to step forward and take responsibility for our community, to offer our gifts of time, money and dedication, and lessen the burden by sharing it around. I pray for all these things through the same Holy Spirit who dwelt in the Apostles, and in Stephen; who dwells in our Brothers and Sisters facing danger around the world today, who will dwell in us if we will just let him; and through our Lord Jesus Christ, who was Lord then and is Lord now, and will share his courage, if you ask him.
Amen.
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| What is Truth by Nikolai Nikolaevich |
So Pilate entered the Judgement Hall again and called Jesus
and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did
others say it to you about me?”
Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief
priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my
kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be
delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus
answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this
purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who
is of the truth listens to my voice.”
This reading gives us one of the most famous moments in the
Bible. Jesus stands before Pilate and defines his Kingdom, and so, what is
unique about the Christian Faith. It may seem familiar, from repeated exposure,
but when we look closely, it is astonishing how it still challenges our
politics and our spiritual assumptions. Jesus is on trial for his life, he knows
that. We cannot forget the terrible emotion of this moment: Christ's agony in
the garden of gethsemane, the profound betrayal by Judas, one of his twelve
chosen disciples; Peter panicking and denying Jesus three times by the
courtyard fire; Christ standing alone before Pilate. I wonder if each of us can
remember moments when it felt like our whole life hung in the balance, though
hopefully not as literally, as for Jesus in this moment. But still Jesus
remains calm, though he must have been wracked by emotion, he even challenges
the mighty Pilate, not to insult or criticise him, but to be clear about what
Pilate is asking.
"Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say
it about me?".
If Pilate speaks for himself he is asking if Jesus is a King
by Roman Eyes, a political leader; or if others have said this, then it is the
Judean leaders, who would be saying he claims to be God's Messiah. Either way,
Jesus does not deny his Kingship, he cannot because he is the King, but he does
not affirm it either. That would leave Pilate no choice, given how he
understands it, but to have Jesus killed.
There is a very deliberate choice in Jesus' actions during
his trial and execution. He will not deny who he is to save himself, but neither
will he give his accusers an excuse to kill him. They must make that choice,
that an innocent man must die to keep the peace. Little do they know how futile
that action is. At the same time, on the cross, Jesus speaks out calling on the
Father to forgive those who killed him. No bitterness, or hatred, must spoil or
mar this sacrifice, as God himself goes to the Cross on behalf of Mankind.
This death is not the evil deed of a few men, but it is the
inevitable result of a world infected by Sin. At the start of the Bible, the book
of Genesis describes how Adam & Eve's sin, of taking the fruit, descends
rapidly into the terrible crime of Cain murdering Abel. The lesson here is that
always the large sins come out of the small ones. Mistrust, dishonesty,
self-obsession, greed, thoughtlessness, fear: these combine and in larger doses
can prove fatal. At the root of every great evil in the world, we find people
infected by these smaller, personal sins. The Love of God shown in Jesus
Christ, his challenge to the powers and laws of this world, was an irresistible
force that met the immovable object, the world's fear and determination to hold
onto its own power.
We should not assume Pilate, or the Jewish leaders were
particularly bad people. On the Jewish side, they had terrible responsibilities;
on the Roman side, they were just doing their duty. They represent the
blindness of bureaucracy, the inertia of a system of government that does not
care about one individual, but sees only a problem to be solved by any means
available, and is prepared to destroy a person to solve it.
In John chapter 11, the High Priest expresses his fear, that
if lots of people turn to Jesus and believe he is a King then the Romans will
destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish nation with it. And he's not wrong, that is
exactly what the Romans would do. That is what the Romans did do in 70AD, 40
years after Jesus' death and resurrection. But what the Jewish Leaders miss is
that they have other options. They don't talk to Jesus to realise he has no
wish to politically challenge the Romans. He will lead no army: his challenge
is moral, it is spiritual. And that means it can be universal: It applies to
Kings and Shepherds, to Queens and little girls, to you and me.
The High Priest uses a remarkable phrase, "Do you not
realize that it is better that one man should die for the people, than that the
whole nation should perish"? He means that Jesus should be killed, to
prevent the risk that the Romans will destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation.
And we condemn him for it, but doesn't it sound so much like our own Christian
confession? We believe Jesus died for all mankind, rather than we should each
suffer for our sins.
So what is the difference? The difference is about choice -
Christ chose to give himself as a sacrifice for all mankind. He made clear to
the Disciples that he knew what would happen. It is very easy to require other
people to makes sacrifices, it is very hard to make sacrifices ourselves. The
High Priest was prepared to sacrifice an innocent man to save the nation, Jesus
was prepared to sacrifice himself to save mankind.
You might ask, why does that matter? Either way, a man dies.
But it matters a great deal, because each of us is responsible for our own
choices. Even if Jesus makes no political challenge to Rome, it's probable that
the Romans would have killed him eventually, because he was becoming a
nuisance. That is just how the Romans did things. But the Jewish leaders did
not have to be involved, Pilate did not have to be involved. Sin is everywhere,
but we make our own choices, and we can refuse to be part of it, as long as
there is breath in our bodies. Each of us can be justly condemned only for our
own choices, and that is a relief and a burden, because there are usually more
choices than we imagine.
And these choices are important. Again and again, Christ
speaks in parables, he answers a question with a question, because he wants to
leave us with choices. He does not want to give us a rule to follow like a
machine, he wants to give us a challenge to rise to. That requires us to use
our own mind and our own heart to take the step and make the right choice. God
made us, he knows what we can accomplish but he doesn't want to beat us over
the head with it! He wants to encourage us along, like an inspirational teacher
or an Olympic trainer, drawing new depths out of their student.
This is what his Kingdom is about. In parable after parable
Jesus describes the Kingdom of God, as a mustard seed that grows and provides
shade for birds and beasts, as a coin we search the whole house for and
celebrate when we find it, as a beautiful treasure worth selling everything we
have to buy, as an employer who pays a day's wages even for a single hour of
work. The Kingdom of God is about an overflowing of God's grace and creative
power that can burn away the evil we are trapped in, if we let go of our fear
and need for control and let it. And every flower that blooms, and every
beautiful thing we make, and every time the sun shines out from behind a cloud,
and every heart we touch, testifies to the Kingdom of God that is growing
around us.
It is about honesty, even in the face of dishonesty; about
kindness, even in the face of ingratitude; about forgiveness, even for those
who do not deserve it. Because these things do not come from our own resources
of grace and energy but from God's overflowing resources. And that well has no
bottom, it will never run dry. That is why Christ can tell us to "Turn the
other cheek, and go the extra mile, and give to the one who asks from you",
it's the same reason Christ could go to the Cross in calm and confidence,
asking the Father to forgive the people who murdered him. Because the
bitterness of this world is limited, but God draws from infinite resources, and
pours them out on the world and on us, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and
the example and sacrifice of Christ.
When Christ says "my Kingdom is not of this
World", or when he says "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give
to God what belongs to God" he is not saying that his Kingdom has no
practical impact on this world. Far from it. He is challenging us to realise
that God's power is filling and transforming the world, and everything must be
reimagined and reshaped by that awesome reality. He is saying God's power
operates everywhere, but in a way that is totally different to human law.
We are hopefully used to thinking that we are stewards of
God's World. This means we are deputies, we have a responsibility given to us
to take care of the World, but remembering always that truly and utterly is
belongs to God who created it. I think we should extend this metaphor to own
bodies, our own lives as well. And to all the institutions of our World. I
recently bought a house and after several months of messing around
with lawyers and others it is now my possession, according to all the laws of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most other countries in the world would
accept that ownership. But that is all rubbish! It belongs to God, and in
everything I do I must act in light of his ownership and purpose. The same with
my money and my body and my time, and my heart.
Christ's Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom: It does not seek to
write its own laws, issue its own passports, collect its own taxes, lock up its
criminals, fight its wars; it doesn't want to make priests into politicians or
judges. Though there have been times when Christians have tried all those
things, generally with disastrous results. If it did those things it would
inevitably be limited. Maybe it would work, for a while, in one place. But as
time changed, and technology changed, as peoples and borders changed, it would
become out-of-date and corrupt and destructive.
Different times and places, and peoples and cultures, and
levels of technology will have different laws and customs and forms of
politics, that suit them. But the Kingdom of God overshadows them all. Christ
does not seek to dictate a law and a constitution, because such things are
temporary, but God is eternal. Rather in every circumstance, we must fill our
political and social institutions with the meaning that comes from God, by
making sure in every choice we are working his purposes out, year by year: his
purposes of creation and forgiveness and generosity. His Kingdom is a kingdom
of the heart, and it is just as relevant whether you live in a Monarchy or a
Republic, whatever party you vote for, whatever government you live under.
Because Christ's Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom it is
universal, it is relevant to people of every time and place and culture,
because it speaks to what is most fundamental about being human, our
relationship to the God who created us; not only us, but the whole Universe
around us. Because God's kingdom is spiritual it can exist in one loving heart,
even where nobody else recognises its authority. It can grow in every family
who believe, in every act of love, in every faithful heart; and it can grow
until it transforms communities and nations and the whole world. Because
Christ's Kingdom is Spiritual, Christ is always its King, the only person who
deserves to be a King.
No other King knows you as an individual and now teaches and
encourages you; No other King has gone ahead of you to sacrifice and death, and
now calls you home. No other Kingdom includes people of every tribe and nation,
every country and culture, united by the same hope and faith and love, by their
same individual relationship with that King. No other Kingdom exists without
walls or borders, but invites everyone in; No other Kingdom has endured for two
thousand years, and will endure until "there is no more death or mourning
or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away". Because
this Kingdom is not of this world, it can transform this whole world, and unite
all mankind. Politics cannot save us, because it cannot transform the heart.
But the Kingdom of God transforms the heart, and the whole world into the
bargain.
Amen.
The disciples come to Jesus to
complain about a person who was not a recognised disciple calling on the name
of Jesus to drive out demons. And Jesus corrects them, saying "for no one
who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment speak against me, for
whoever is not against us is for us". Jesus is expanding the boundaries, of
who can be called a disciple, saying God is not bounded by our
organisations and categories, but reaches out to all those who want to put
their faith in him.
And the Church has not always
been good at remembering this verse. The Spirit goes ahead of us, finding those
people with a heart turned towards God. Too often though, the Church has
rejected people seeking to act outside the current accepted structures, out of
fear and concern about what people might say or do, out of a desire to keep the mission
of God under control. But God is not under our control or command. Always the
Holy Spirit is going ahead of us and inspiring new people, in different ages
and place and ways. Perhaps we should see our mission more as going out and
finding those people the Spirit is inspiring and offering our help.
Let me tell you a true story. 300 years ago, the Church in England was in a bad state. Personal faith and commitment were rare among ordinary people, clergy were not appointed for their spirituality and dedication to God, but because they were sons of minor gentry who didn't have another job; the government and aristocracy saw the Church as a means of controlling society and ensuring the poor and working people did not get the wrong ideas. Then within this environment came a man called John Wesley, who went on to found the Methodist movement. Wesley was a remarkable man. By upbringing and training he was a stiff high-churchman, a Tory and a conservative, who believed church should be conducted by the book, by rules and order. But then one day at a church service in Aldersgate London the Holy Spirit moved in him and from then on he was a different man.
He began preaching outside of
physical church buildings, something that was unheard of and basically illegal
at the time. He preached in fields and in graveyards, and on the street and at
factories, anywhere people would stop and listen. He preached about the Love
and Forgiveness of God that could change the life of any man or woman or child.
He inspired people to seek a life of genuine holiness, giving up violence and
drunkenness, and hatred and bitterness, and embracing a Christian life of love
and faith. He encouraged groups of working-class people to form their own
religious communities, he encouraged ordinary people to preach and teach
without clergy being involved, he cast aside every High-Church principle he had
treasured of what respectable conduct looked like to reach people with the
message of God.
He and his followers suffered
abuse and persecution: they were barred from churches, dragged before
magistrates and rejected by polite society. They carried on day after day, for
50 years. He spoke out condemning slavery, long before that was a popular
position, and he supported women in preaching and leading, many years before
that became accepted across society. When he died, he left behind 140,000
people dedicating their lives to the Good News of Jesus Christ, 500 largely
working class lay preachers, and not a penny to his name. The tens of millions
of Methodists worldwide are today a testament to his selfless love of Jesus
Christ.
John Wesley was faithful to the Church of England his whole life. He never rejected the Church, he never wanted the movement he started to be separate from the Church of England, but he would not, he could not allow the constraining rules of the Church in his day to stop him from carrying out the mission of God's Spirit. Caught between his loyalty to the Church and his loyalty to God, he chose God. But what of the Church? By turning its back on the Methodist movement, by refusing to judge a tree by its fruit, by refusing to see what God's Spirit was doing, the Church of England lost out on a great opportunity to be renewed and revived, and after John Wesley died Methodists and Anglicans in Britain and around the world became more divided, and sadly that divide is still with us today. How much energy and hope and blessing has been squandered in this country because Church leaders were not willing to accept that God was going ahead of them? And the lesson was there in the Gospel the whole time - “For whoever is not against us is for us."
At least then do not let us make
the same mistake. I think to some degree we have finally learned the lesson. I
hope and expect there is not anyone here today who would say you have to be an
Anglican, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, to be a Christian. No, rather the one
who has faith in God through Jesus Christ, and does what the Lord Jesus,
commanded, in faith, hope and love, that person is truly a Christian. Let us
always be open and humble, willing to consider new ideas, new ways that God
might be moving, and inspiring people: to set up a ministry, a Christian
community group, a charity, a YouTube channel, an entire church. Let us always
be open to help where we can, for "by their fruit you shall know them".
At the same time, we should not
abandon our scepticism, we should always be willing to ask questions, about
plans, intentions; and we should always be willing to answer them humbly and
peacefully. If we asking people to give us their money, their time, their
trust, then we should welcome the chance to reasonably justify ourselves.
Scrutiny is not persecution, we should welcome the chance to demonstrate that
we act from the right motives, and with ideas that can work. We should be
willing to consider that I myself, might be wrong, not just some other person.
Because, in the second half of our reading, we see what it can mean, at the worst, when we are not humble enough to accept that we might be wrong, where we reject scrutiny, and fail in our responsibility to be accountable to one another. "“If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them if an enormous rock were tied around their neck and they were thrown into the sea." I cannot hear those words without thinking of the terrible scandals of abuse of children and adults that have taken place in many of the institutions of our society: the BBC, Football Clubs, Social Services, the Police, Schools, and in Churches. Lives have been devastated. People who trusted in Church ministers and leaders to protect them and nurture them, have been betrayed in the most appalling way; and when victims have come forward to warn people about the predators in our midst, wolves in sheep's clothing, often they have been ignored or side-lined, and more innocent people have been victimised.
It would be better for those predators, and better for those people who enabled them, better for those people who allowed abuse to continue, if they had enormous rocks tied around their necks, and they threw themselves into the sea. Every time we discuss Safeguarding at church meetings, I hear those words. God's anger and wrath burns against the evil done to his children. How do these things happen though? There are a small minority of wolves in sheep's clothing, of predators, and they are very good at hiding themselves, and they could be anywhere. They are priests and school teachers and social workers and doctors and parents and university professors and policemen and a hundred other things. They can appear anywhere, but they are very few in number. But for each predator there must be many people who do not ask questions, who do not keep their eyes open, who do not scrutinise what is happening around them, who give in to inertia, and so become accomplices to evil.
And I suspect we would be terrified by how easy a thing it is to do. You're a busy person, incredibly busy, you're constantly swapping between a dozen different things: work, family, social events, community groups. You've got a list of people you need to speak to, another list to email, text, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, all going off throughout the day; and at the same time, you're trying to remember to post a birthday card, and a dozen items to pick up from the shops. Amid all that you receive one message asking to meet and talk about something, some kind of complaint about a person you know. You know the person, you've known them for years, they've always been reliable, cheerful, and caring. They are a friend, and you feel loyalty to them, warmth, trust. You don't know the details, you can't believe it, and you don't know what you should or could do, so you put it to one side for now. And before you realise there's another email, another meeting, another responsibility, and without ever meaning it, the message, the allegation, the warning, is forgotten and the chance is missed.
It has happened, you have become an enabler of evil, and "it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea." There are other ways this can happen as well. Perhaps you do not receive a message about potential abuse, perhaps you just notice something out-of-place, something that makes you uncomfortable, and you brush it off and never mention it to anyone. That too can be a way we fail in our duty to provide a safe and loving environment, for children, for vulnerable adults, for everyone. You may never be in that situation, but if you are, if you notice something, if you are told something, you may be the only one, which is why it is so important that you know how to act, and you do. That is why we have safeguarding procedures, and training, and a safeguarding officer - currently Josie Gadsby - so in the rare event we can act to prevent evil happening among us, we know what to do, and we do it. We must all be prepared; and we must make clear, that if you notice anything inappropriate, or if you are suffering anything that is wrong, this is a safe environment to come forward and speak out, knowing it will be taken seriously and acted upon.
The terrible evil of personal
abuse, is, certainly, not the only form of sin, though it is one of the most terrible.
Often sin comes in smaller, more mundane forms: anger, greed, self-obsession,
bitterness, thoughtlessness, dishonesty. In small doses these make up the
everyday failures which mark our lives, alongside, of course, all the good we
do. But the bad does not wash out the good, nor the good the bad. Still, we
harm and do injustice to those around us, often in ways we are not even aware
of, but the effect is the same. And smaller
doses combine into doses that may then be fatal. All the evils of our world, up to the big lies that poison whole nations, originate in these same mundane sins, that combine and grow.
I was reminded of this again recently, when I came to church to see the 'Camino to COP' walkers, who are walking from London to Glasgow to beg Global Leaders gathering there to take serious action against the threat of Global Warming. I have to say I was deeply moved by their pilgrimage, by their description of walking and singing and laughing and hoping together on this great journey across our country. It was also a reminder that the damage done by Global Warming, which we are seeing in increased wildfires, and flooding, retreating polar icecaps, and other symptoms in recent years, and which threatens both humans and animal species. I think of not just Global Warming, but the Plastic Pollution problem, the destruction of the Rainforests, the devastation of fishing stocks, of air pollution and all the forms of damage we have done and are doing to our Environment.
The church service I grew up
with, Common Worship, had some wonderful words in the Confession of our sins
that stick with me today: through negligence, through weakness, through our own
deliberate fault. Sometimes you hear people talk about sins of commission and
omission: that's what you do, and what you don't do; what you say, and what you
don't say. Each kind is as important as the other, and environmental problems
are an important example of how they can also come mixed together. Nobody gets
up in the morning and says, "Today I'm going to screw the planet",
but at the same time, we all contribute, through the consumption and lifestyles
we lead, the plastic we throw away, the cars we drive, the flights we take, the
palm oil in the food we eat, etc. We don't do it to do harm, but we all do it,
and we do cause harm.
"If your hand causes you to
stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter Eternal Life maimed than
with two hands go into hell. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it
off. It is better to enter Eternal Life crippled than have two feet and be
thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. Better
for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be
thrown into hell"
Strong words, words designed to shock and startle us, that would have been just as horrifying to Jesus' original audience. But not words meant to be taken literally. Often Jesus talks in parables and metaphors to provoke deeper thought and reflection, and that is what he's doing here. But only because it is not the hand, or the foot, or the eye that causes you to stumble: it is the heart, it is me, or you. If I curse someone is it my mouth who sins? No, it is me. If I kick someone in anger, is it my foot that has sinned? No, of course, it is me. And though with God's grace I try to fight sin in one part of my heart and my life, it is still there in another, and another.
Maybe, then, I should conclude these words are just windy rhetoric, which can be easily ignored. No, they most certainly are not. They are incredibly, deadly serious. Well then, maybe there is nothing left to do but despair, since sin is everywhere. No, my friends, not that either. We cannot ignore evil, and we cannot minimise it, and we cannot give in to despair because of it. We have another option, because we are not alone. We could never free ourselves from the grip of sin by our own power, but we do not need to.
Jesus Christ, who is God of God,
was born a man, lived and died as one of us, and because he is God himself,
rose again free of sin and death and shame; and through Jesus Christ we have
the gift of forgiveness, grace and freedom from our sins. We are joined with
the very Power of God, and the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. We have a
terrible responsibility, to fight against sin and evil every day in our own
lives, but never alone, with the Grace and Power of God who walks alongside us
every step of the way, knowing he sees us as we really are and loves us anyway,
enough to die for us that we may live.
Jesus Christ, my Master and my Friend, walks alongside us but we have help from another source too. The Holy Spirit is moving around us and ahead of us, stirring people up, and if we can keep up with the Spirit then we are in for a remarkable adventure. I spoke earlier about John Wesley and the incredible life he had, one that still touches tens of millions of people, Methodists and others, around the world today. He was not the first, the man in our reading today, who was exorcising demons, he probably wasn't even the first, and neither will either of them be the last. The Holy Spirit is moving today, and so I still have hope, no matter what you read in the papers, what you read on Facebook, what you read online, thanks be to God, there is always hope. The powers of sin and death and evil and fear in our own lives and in our world are terrible, but they are nothing against the power of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Image borrowed with thanks from: https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/2020/06/11/avoidance-of-sin-2/
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked byrobbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
 |
| By Balthasar van Cortbemde (1647) |
Then Jesus said, “which of those three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The parable of the Good Samaritan is probably the most famous of Jesus' parables. Even people who never go into a church, who know very little about the Bible, will understand who a 'Good Samaritan' is: a person who makes the choice to help someone else, particularly a stranger. You have hopefully heard of the charity called 'Samaritans', where people volunteer to speak, by phone or email or text, to anyone who calls, particularly people who are suicidal or depressed. The Samaritans were founded by a vicar of the Church of England in 1953, after a young girl in his parish committed suicide, and the name was given in a newspaper reporting on his work.
It has led to a worldwide network of organisations that provide someone to listen, for people who have nobody else. On my phone today, I have an app called GoodSam, which was used during the Lockdowns to connect NHS volunteer responders with people who needed help, whether with collecting prescriptions, getting shopping, or whatever. GoodSam is slightly snappier, as names go, but you can see where it comes from.
The name of the Good Samaritan is so recognisable after 2000 years because this short parable gives such a clear and challenging view of what it means to serve others, amid the reality that it is something we must actively choose, when it is so easy to find reasons not to. And, if that was not enough, it challenges us to confront our prejudices about who may be in need, and who might turn to help. Jesus tells this parable to answer a question from an expert in the Jewish Law. This lawyer has correctly recognised the two most important commandments in the Old Testament Law: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"; and, "Love your neighbour as yourself".
He thinks he knows who God is, but he is left with one crucial question, "who is my neighbour?". Of course, the man isn't asking who lives next door to me? He is asking who is near to my heart, who do I need to care for? Who should I love? Who is my neighbour? Now that is a question that still obsesses us today, it defines our politics and our international relations. Where do we draw the line for who we support through our healthcare and welfare system, and how generously do we support them? Do we regard lives in other countries as precious as our own, if they are threatened by poverty or war?
These are not easy questions. And Jesus does not try to give us a precise answer in each and every situation. How could he? Not in a thousand pages. Rather, with a few words he gives us a clear illustration of the principles and values that must guide us, and he leaves us to use our judgement and our conscience, I hope with the help of God's Holy Spirit, to decide what we must do in our own lives. I pray we will take that responsibility seriously, and approach it with care, each and every day, because we never know the impact we can have, for good or bad, in small ways and large ones, as we make our choices.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers". Now, when Jesus said the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, he means it quite literally, because to travel from Jerusalem up on Mt Zion to Jericho by the Dead Sea involves descending by about 1000m in altitude over a 20 miles journey. That's quite a long way down. And for 20 miles the road passes through land that is steep, rocky, barren and deserted. It was also well-known for being a dangerous route, where robbers often did strike in remote places. A man attacked and beaten here would be far from help, unless a kind soul came upon him along the road and took pity on him. Otherwise, naked and hurt out in the desert, he would surely die.
The man is unspecified, he could be anyone, though since Jesus is talking to a crowd of Jews, I think we are meant to assume he is a Jew. But it is important we know nothing about him, he stands then, for anyone in trouble, anyone in need. And there are times when we are all in need; times when we have all been set upon by troubles, not for all, by armed robbers, but certainly times when we are in deep need of the kindness of others. This man, beaten and alone, is us, in our worst moments, and we are him.
And then who comes along the way, a priest and then a Levite, who both "walk by on the other side". I know there have been times also, when I have been that priest, or Levite, and walked by on the other side. Times I'm not proud of, maybe I was too busy, or too afraid, or somewhere I didn't know, or maybe I was hurrying to some other good deed, but I thought I saw someone in need, and I walked by on the other side. Jesus does not say it, but the priest and the Levite surely too have good excuses for not helping the man lying half-dead. The priest is coming from Jerusalem to Jericho, maybe he has served his term in the Temple, and now is returning to his family, who will be waiting anxiously for him. The Levite maybe fears that the robbers are still around and threaten him, or maybe even that the man is merely pretending to be in need, to trap him.
Either way, they make their choice, and hurry on, and the man is still lying hurt and in need. Their choice is made more stark, by the important roles they hold. A priest and a Levite are the religious and moral leaders of their day. I have a beautifully illustrated children's version of this parable, for my daughter, let's say, and in that version, it is a Bishop and a Judge who walk by. Today it could be another person as well: maybe a member of parliament, or a local councillor; maybe a doctor or a charity worker; anyway, a person in a position of trust and moral authority, who walks by on the other side. As sadly people in positions of trust and authority sometimes do, because it's always more easy to talk about doing good, than it is to actually do it. I felt very aware of that as I sat and wrote this sermon, I thought, if anyone asks me for help now, I will have to say yes, there's a limit to how much of my own hypocrisy I can live with.
So the priest and the Levite walked by on the other side, but now the Samaritan comes along, "and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him". The first thing to notice is the man's needs are very concrete, and so is the care the Samaritan gives him. One of the huge problems with Politics, is it can leave us so caught up in theoretical, ideological discussions, about who is responsible, and who is to blame, and who should pay, and why, that we lose track of real and concrete needs. I consider myself a patriot, I love my country, its people, its history and its land, but people can't eat patriotism.
The more abstract issues may matter in their own time, but we cannot lose track of the fact hungry people need feeding, and the sick need care, and people who are cold need heat, and once we have attended to those needs, we can argue about the theoretical issues. Jesus makes this point again and again, such as in the parable of the sheep and the goats. At the end of time, at the end of our lives, Jesus draws this distinction between good and evil: when I was hungry did you give me something to eat? When I was thirsty did you give me something to drink? When I was a stranger did you invite me in? When I needed clothes did you clothe me? Justifications and excuses are not enough.
The Samaritan crosses the road to tend to the stranger, he chooses to make himself involved; he puts the beaten man on his donkey while he walks, and he takes the man to an inn. At that point the Samaritan could have considered that he had done his good deed, he had completed his job, he had discharged his obligation, but he doesn't. He takes his involvement a step further, and says "Look after him, [...] and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have." He chooses to make an ongoing commitment to the man who was attacked. He sees it as his responsibility as long as there remains a need. He has given his time, his effort, he has already given money, and now he gives his ongoing commitment.
Jesus is making a point here. Any help is better than none, but many problems do not have an easy and immediate solution. Often the most important choices we make are not when we help someone once, but when we make a commitment to be there to help them again and again, for as long as they need. Now, that is a difficult commitment to make, and it's not something we can do every day, or need to do every day, but it is one of the most noble things a person can do.
Who is this Samaritan then, and why did Jesus pick him as the example of what it means to be a neighbour? Well, in our society this parable is so well-known that, as I said, a Samaritan just means someone who chooses to help a stranger. But the Samaritans were, and still are, a religious community in the Middle-East closely related to the Jews. Today there are sadly very few of them left, only 850, in Israel and the West Bank, but when Jesus was preaching, they were a thriving community. The Samaritans were closely related to the Jews, they lived in Samaria, which is now known as the West Bank, and their religion is very similar to Judaism. But the two communities separated hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and now there was a long-standing bitterness and hatred between them.
This was a type of division that is all too common in our world: a civil war, a lingering, smouldering conflict between people who lived right beside one another, and have almost everything in common, but sadly, hate each other all the more because of it. Many of the worse conflicts of our modern world are like this: in Northern Ireland, in Syria, in Bosnia, in Israel and Palestine, in the Congo, and elsewhere. In smaller, thankfully less violent ways, we suffer from polarisation like this in our society as well, for the last 5 years between Brexiters and Remainers; or in America over the rumbling culture war between conservatives and liberals.
As humankind we are so prone to these kinds of divisions, we seek them out, like the voice of the Devil whispering constantly in our ear, encouraging us to seek splits and divisions wherever we can. The narcissism of small differences, as it's sometimes called, where we obsess about our differences despite the fact we have so much in common, can be our greatest threat. These kinds of divisions can come in communities of any size, within churches even, or families; sometimes grievances linger for decades, even after the original reason has been forgotten. If we let these linger, before long it stops even being about the original grievance, it becomes about the things you did to me and I did to you, in all the years in between. And that can go on forever.
Responding to an expert in the Jewish Law, probably in front of a crowd of Jews, Jesus is making a very powerful point by having a Samaritan as the hero of his story, in contrast to the choices of the Priest and the Levite. We are prone to stereotypes and prejudices, that often involve us thinking we are better and smarter and kinder than some group we label as Other than us. But goodness does not involve belonging to a tribe or a side or a party, it is defined by the way we choose to act; by the love we show to our fellow men and women. The individual is not defined by their group: people we think of as Us, like the Priest and Levite, may fail when it comes to the test; and people we regard as Them, like the Samaritan, may surprise us with their pity and compassion. We all bear the image of God, and we all have the potential for good and evil. But when we let stereotypes and prejudices do our thinking for us, we make ourselves stupid, and we risk ignoring the good among people who are different to us, as well as missing the evil lurking on our own side.
This doesn't mean there aren't real rights and wrongs between groups or nations or in politics, there are. Before Jesus's time Jews had killed Samaritans, and Samaritans had killed Jews. His audience might have expected a Samaritan to not just ignore the man, but to attack him again. But Jesus went the other way. We cannot assume our prejudices about the group, define the individual; each person deserves the right to prove themselves, and to define themselves.
After the recent European Cup final there was, quite rightly, outrage about racist abuse directed at Black England player online. And as a community we should take pride in the fact 3 of those players: Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, have spoken out about their Christian faith. I don't doubt that they will have read this parable, they will have reflected on this parable, they will have heard sermons on this parable. And I wonder what impact that has had on their campaigning as role models for poor and marginalised people in this country. Racism is evil because it doesn't care about the choices a person makes, but defines them as good or evil based on what race they belong to. Martin Luther King, the great Baptist minister, a man drenched in the Bible, described this beautifully in his famous phrase, when he said he wanted his children to "live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character".
Too often, though, people who called themselves Christians have been responsible for encouraging racism, rather than defeating it. But I cannot open my Bible and possibly understand what book they were reading; as I cannot when people call themselves Christians but ignore their obligation to the poor and vulnerable. I think these cases are clear examples of when people have allowed their desire to protect their positions of wealth and power blind them to what God is saying in the Bible on page after page. The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us that we have a choice, we can choose to blind ourselves to our responsibility and walk by on the other side, or we can choose to prove what it really means to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, and to love our neighbour as ourself.
I believe that the Christian faith has a unique contribution to make in overcoming racism and prejudice in our world. We have a story, stretching back 3000 years to right to the present day, that can help all people see that they can be, and must be, brothers and sisters to one other. The Bible says that the entire human race are one widespread family, spiritual children of the same parents, Adam & Eve, created directly by God in his image. Centuries before Jesus was born the prophet Isaiah spoke movingly about a day when all the peoples of the world will stream to Jerusalem, united in worship of God, and Mt Zion in Jerusalem "will be called a house of prayer for all nations". The Gospels describe how Jesus sent his disciples out to the ends of the earth, "to make disciples of all nations". At Pentecost the first miracle of the Holy Spirit was to give the Disciples the power to speak in the many languages of all the people there. And, St Paul confirmed in his famous words, "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus".
The result of this is a Christian Church that is today the largest and most diverse community in the entire world. A community that is real because it is based on sharing the most profound and important of things, a life defined by love and faith in Christ; not on belonging to a race or nationality or language or sex or age, and so a community uniquely open to all people to join.
But we deny that potential if, like the Priest and the Levite, we walk by on the other side from the troubles of our brothers and sisters both near and far, of every creed and colour and name.
“Which of those three [the Priest, Levite and Samaritan] do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The lawyer replied, “The one who took care of him.”
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
