Sunday, September 27, 2015

For or against Him?



A Sermon preached on September 27th (Proper 21) at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22, James 5:13-20, Mark 9:38-50

As I said in my weekly email, we have an interesting mix of readings this week and I’m glad I’m not teaching Sunday school, some of the images sound a little difficult to explain. So what’s behind them, is there some common theme? One thing I found and that I want to talk about is how our ideas of who God can work through, or who actually works for God, differ from God’s ideas about who can act in God’s name. 

Sometimes it is us as individuals who do not feel up to the task. Esther certainly does not feel up to the task she has been given. You know if it wasn’t for the gruesome end – with the gallows – the Book of Esther would actually be a good one for children, it contains a lot of fairy tale elements. Kings and queens, a promise of half of a kingdom, a happy ending, and of course an evil villain, the wicked Haman, the grand vizier. He has plotted to have all the Jews in Persia killed. Our heroine, Esther, is a Jew, though the king doesn’t know that yet. When her uncle Mordecai first tells her about the plot to kill the Jews and that she must “go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people,” (Esther 4:8) she is afraid and refuses because she knows that if she tries to see the king without being called first she can be put to death. But when her uncle Mordecai points out that “perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” (4:14) Esther changes her mind and promises after a period of fasting that “I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” (4:16) And you heard the rest of the story– instead of Esther and her people dying, it is Haman who gets his just reward and the Jewish version of carnival – Purim – is initiated to celebrate this dramatic deliverance, a festival celebrated with much joy and gladness to this day.

At first, Esther does not feel up to the task she has been given, what helps change her mind is the realization – with Mordecai’s help – that if God has put her in this position and given her this task, then God will surely give her the strength and ability she needs to complete it – whatever the result. And before going to see the king she seeks guidance and reassurance in prayer and meditation – in a time of fasting.

In the final paragraphs of his letter, James is also trying to encourage the members of his Christian community to act in Christ’s name, as at least some of them felt inadequate and not up to the task. His specific examples are praying for one another and forgiving one another. Neither - he writes – are restricted to a few or to the particularly devout or saintly. Look at what Elijah managed to do through prayer, is his example, he caused a three year drought and then made it rain again and he “was a human being like us.” All it takes is a prayer of faith because the “prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (James 5:16) and as we know from Paul’s teaching, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, who follows him, has been made righteous. We – I also know from experience, that praying for healing does not always work physically. No one I have anointed and prayed over at our weekly healing service has suddenly been relieved of their pain or had their injury healed – though that won’t stop me praying for it to happen. But I still trust that in some way I am doing God’s will at that moment and that in some way – at least spiritually – healing and wholeness will result. 

You have probably all heard about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent initiative to “save” the Anglican Communion by inviting the Primates - that is the senior bishops in each national Church or Province, to a gathering in Canterbury where he wants them to reflect and pray together concerning the future of the Anglican Communion. This is a very positive step as we have been spending far too much time on ourselves and on our internal disagreements instead of witnessing to a God of love and peace, or as the Archbishop is supposed to have said, we have been “spending vast amounts of time trying to keep people in the boat and never actually rowing it anywhere.”[1]
 
Unfortunately the initial reaction of the GAFCON Primates was not encouraging. These are the conservative Anglican Church leaders many from Africa and Asia, but including break-away churches in the US and Canada, who define themselves mainly by their opposition to the full inclusion of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Christians in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada. In their first communiqué they emphasized their mission “to restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion with a strength and unity that comes from our common confession of the Lord Jesus Christ,” before going on to say that in their opinion the crisis in the Communion is a problem of “false teaching which continues without repentance or discipline.” That doesn’t sound very open to dialogue and it certainly doesn’t sound as if they believe that God also works through the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada or that these churches act in God’s name. 

It would seem that the passage from today’s Gospel is not one the GAFCON Primates read very often. Their reaction and behavior sound suspiciously like the reaction of the disciples to the person who dares to act in Jesus’ name: “We tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” (Mark 9:38) Not how they say following “us” – the disciples - not “you” – Jesus. Jesus quickly corrects them: "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.” To be a Christian means following Jesus Christ, and not a particular group of followers. That is behind the whole ecumenical movement. We accept that people who worship differently, who have different church structures, and who will also interpret the Bible differently, but who express a clear faith in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit and who try and model their lives on Jesus’ life and teaching as received – through human mediation -  in the Bible that they are fully Christian. And we rejoice in our common mission of “restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”[2]
 
If someone heals or feeds another in Jesus’ name then we have no reason to stop them, nor to “put a stumbling block before those who believe in Jesus Christ.” (9:42) On the contrary, we rejoice in their deeds and their witness and we hope for fellowship, communion, and cooperation in Jesus’ name. I do not need GAFCON to restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion, or for that matter to the heart of the Episcopal Church, or of this particular church. It is already there. Yes, we do have a problem of differing interpretations about what is, to be honest, a relatively peripheral issue in Scripture. But I am prepared to accept and work with other churches and Christians even when they do not agree with me in every detail of what it means to be Christian. I accept that I may be wrong, I’ve changed my mind over the years on many things and I hope I will continue to do so if I am convinced that the new interpretation is more true and closer to God’s will. But basic humility and the Lord’s own words in Mark’s Gospel remind me that I am not God and that I must leave the final decision about who acts in God’s name to God – though I think it will be a very loving and generous decision.

The salt that Jesus speaks of in the final verses of the extract from Mark’s Gospel that we heard today is the salt of faith. Without faith we cannot season the world. And it is faith that allows us as individuals to act even when we do need feel up to the task at hand, and it is the same common faith that in Jesus’ words should lead us to be at peace with ourselves and with one another as we follow him as best we can.  So my brothers and sisters, “have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (9:50)  
Amen.


[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/archbishop-of-canterbury-urges-breakup-of-divided-anglican-communion
[2] The Book of Common Prayer, 855
 

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Like a child



A Sermon preached on September 20th (Proper 20) at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden


Proverbs 31:10-31, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a, Mark 9:30-37

You can’t help but feel sorry for the disciples. I sometimes feel that they can only get it wrong. Whenever Jesus used parables or metaphors they fail to understand him, often by taking things literally, causing much frustration on Jesus’ part: “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4:13) Jesus asks them after the parable of the sower when presumably they took that illustration so seriously that they all wanted to dash off and buy seeds to sow. Or when Jesus warns them to “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod,” all they can think of is the bread they had forgotten to bring “They said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.” To which Jesus replies “Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?” (Mark 8:15-17) 

So by now the disciples have got so used to looking for a deeper meaning in Jesus’ words or actions that when he tells them that he will be betrayed, killed, and three days after being killed, rise again (Mark 9:31) they don’t know what to make of it. I can just imagine them thinking: Is this another one of his parables, if so what does it mean? Not what he says I hope. I don’t want him to die …. I don’t want to die. But we’re not going to ask him – look what he called Peter a couple of days ago, Satan! 

Well I can’t say I blame them entirely. And don’t we still do that at times – look for some deeper meaning in Jesus’ action and words, especially when we don’t like the most obvious one? A couple of days ago Elaine White posted a quote by the American comedian Stephen Colbert that sums up that attitude very nicely: “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.”[1] Just substitute the word “refugee” for “poor” and you’ve got the attitude of some European “Christian” politicians.

But returning to the disciples in today’s gospel, rather than ask Jesus what he meant, they go back to humanity’s favorite occupation: jostling for position and prestige: “They argued with one another about who was the greatest.” (Mark 9:34) I wonder what that sounded like – Peter saying, I’m the most important because I was Jesus’ first choice? Sure Peter, but who did Jesus call Satan the other day? Anyway, says Matthew, look at what I had to give up behind – I was a successful tax collector! Or Judas saying – words, words – I’m a man of action. Who knows! What we do know is that Jesus knew very well what they were talking about. So how can he make them – and us – understand that following him is not a matter of prestige or status, nor will it lead to wealth and success? How can he show them, and us, that no one follower of Christ is more important than the other – regardless of the type of collar they wear or what position they have been elected to, or how long they have been a Christian or a member of a parish? Well he can tell them directly and he does: ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ (9:35) And he uses a teaching aid – a child. 

Why a child? Jesus often uses children to make a point. In the next chapter of Mark’s gospel we find that famous passage when the disciples try and keep some children away from Jesus. “He was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” (10:14) In 1st century BC society children had very little status or protection, which doesn’t mean that they were not loved by their parents. But when Jesus says “it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” one thing he wants us to understand is that everyone, even those without status and position, in fact especially those without status and position, have access to God and to God’s grace and love. But when he goes on to say “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it” (10:15) he is referring to the childlike innocence and trust that should frame our attitude to God. It’s not who we are or what we do, but how we approach God that is important and that makes us – to stick with the theme of children – God’s children. At the very beginning of John’s gospel we read: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” (John 1:12) And according to Paul we are children of God when we are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14) and “in Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith.” (Gal. 3:26) 

All these meanings are behind this morning’s passage too. First Jesus calls on his disciples to welcome those such as this child, so to welcome and to care for those without status and position, for there are no restrictions on who can follow Jesus. We cannot and must not place any limits on God’s grace. 

And when we who are already followers of Christ and perhaps also leaders within a Christian community reach out to the helpless, that is also an illustration of Jesus’ call to be servant of all. In fact there may even be a visual pun in there for the disciples and the early Jewish Christians, as the Hebrew word for child – talya – can also mean servant.  

The call to welcome one such child in my name (9:37) reminds us of why we are called to reach out, not just to help others, thought that is a primary reason, but also to bring people to Jesus by those acts carried out in his name that is as a result of our faith in him and in his Father, the one who sent him. And there are no particular qualifications required, no length of service, no special education – all we have to do is welcome and help the needy and the helpless in Jesus’ name.

In doing so, we also welcome Jesus, that is promise to follow him and to make him the center of our lives, and the God who sent him and who we really only know through Jesus. And of course in welcoming God in Christ we are welcomed, received, loved and forgiven too. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Is how James puts it in his letter that we also heard read earlier. (James 4:8) In fact James’ letter could in part be a – rather more wordy – summary of Jesus’ teaching. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” There it is again, no partiality – no selection of who is worthy. We help those who need help – full stop (or period). The concept of “Wisdom” as James uses it is Christian wisdom, God’s wisdom – the wisdom of the heart and not of the mind, the wisdom that for us is personified by Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God. 

“Show by your good lives that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom,” (James 3:13) show by your lives and witness the wisdom that is our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
Amen


[1] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/327220-if-this-is-going-to-be-a-christian-nation-that