Harvesting the Fruits

A Sermon preached on Sunday 29 September (Pentecost XIX/Harvest Festival) at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29, Mark 9:38-50

May these spoken words be faithful to the written word and lead us to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

I struggled today to make some form of connection between our readings and harvest festival that we also celebrate. The closest I could get is the list of foods in the Old Testament reading. “We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” (Numbers 11:4) But as they are the subject of a complaint to God, the Israelites were fed up with the monotonous diet of manna, that’s not really appropriate for a Festival of Thanksgiving!

To be fair, these readings were not specially selected for harvest festival, they are simply the ones appointed for this Sunday, the XIX after Pentecost. So, it’s no surprise that the passage from Mark’s Gospel does not address God’s gifts of the fruits of the earth in their season. Instead, it seems to be a collection of unrelated sayings by Jesus, and according to many commentators it is just that. Here Mark, has put together things that Jesus said at various times and in various contexts, because he did not want them to be lost, because he felt they were important and needed to be preserved for his community and for posterity. And yet, even though they were probably not said together, I think they still have a theme in common, as each highlights some aspect of what it means to be a Christian.

The first one probably comes as a bit of a surprise, we don’t have to follow Jesus to be for him? Whoever is not against us is for us, is that enough? No, it’s clearly more than that. The person the disciples want to stop is acting in and invoking Jesus’s name. This is connected to the story we heard from the Book of Numbers (11:28-29) when Joshua, the assistant of Moses, wants Moses to stop two people prophesying in the Lord’s name with the Lord’s gift of the Spirit: “But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!’”

We don’t stop people who are doing good, we don’t reject other people acting in God’s or in Jesus’ name. We know them, as Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel (7:16, 18) by their fruits: “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” We should not assume that we are the only ones who are right. I don’t just mean that personally, but also as a church and denomination. I think you all know that I’m very active ecumenically, working with other churches in Germany. We have a simple common framework. The 2001 Charta Oecumenica, signed by all the churches that are members of either the Conference of European Churches, or the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, describes our common task as “Listening together to God's word in Holy Scripture, challenged to confess our common faith and to act together in accordance with the perceived truth, (to) bear witness to the love and hope which are for all people.”[1]

We work together despite our different structures, vestments, music, worship and rituals, and even some of our beliefs, because we all bear and profess the name of Christ. We believe and accept that all the member churches, Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental, Pentecostal, Protestant, Free and Anglican are of God. The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson reminds us that “God fulfils himself in many ways” and the writer Miguel de Cervantes, of Don Quixote fame, also wrote that “Many are the roads by which God carries his own to heaven.” I do not believe that Episcopalians are better Anglicans, or that Anglicans are better Christians. This is just where I feel most at home!

The second teaching block sounds very unpleasant and threatening: drowning, mutilation and unquenchable fire are not my preferred themes at a family service, and they are not to be taken literally! None of them are expected of you. The issue here is that there are things so bad that Jesus feels the need to use drastic language to warn his followers, especially those in positions of responsibility. To “put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me,” (Mark 942) is to lead someone astray, by false teaching! One example would be to teach people to hate in Jesus’ name!

Then we have sinful desires and actions, illustrated by body parts, that come between us and God and our neighbour. It was common in the rabbinic tradition to connect particular parts of the body to sins, for example in the saying that “the eye and heart are the two brokers of sin,” probably referring here to the sin of coveting, of desiring what does not belong to us. Jesus tells us to root out and destroy anything that stands in the way of an abundant life, that would keep us from entering the kingdom of God and living by its values, that prevent us from following God’s will. The hand could stand for a hand that hits someone in anger, the foot for whatever leads us away from God, the eye for desiring something that is not good for us, some idol. We could add more, remember what James said about the tongue in his letter a couple of weeks ago!

Really the only part of this passage that we can take literally is the description of Gehenna, here translated as hell, actually the valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, once a place of human sacrifice and in Jesus’ day a rubbish tip or refuse heap that was covered with fires and was always smouldering. It became a symbol of hell!

Finally, we have three short sayings connected by their use of salt as an illustration. They are related to the more famous saying from Matthew’s Gospel (5:13) that we are the salt of the earth. Each of them addresses different aspects of the role we – as Christians – are supposed to play in society. Like fire we are to help purify the world, make it what it is supposed to be, the kingdom of God. Salt, used in moderation, brings out the flavour of food. We do not make the world or people good; but with the salt that is the Good News of Jesus Christ, we bring out that existing flavour, we reinforce it! But only with an unadulterated message, not one that we have redefined to our own needs. And I think that to have salt in ourselves, is simply the call to practice what we preach, one example would be at peace with one another, so that “they'll know we are Christians by our love.”

Coming back to my opening struggle to connect today’s readings with Harvest Festival! Two final thoughts:

Firstly, Harvest Festival is a celebration of variety, just look at all the different produce we have here, some in their original form, some already processed to make other foodstuffs. That could be one connection with the variety of sayings and teachings in today’s readings. Both are a varied collection of good things meant to nourish us physically or spiritually.

And secondly, all of today’s teachings are about what kind of people a church produces. What are the fruits? What is the harvest? How will we nourish a world hungry for good news?

Amen.

 

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[1] http://www.ceceurope.org/current-issues/charta-oecumenica/

Servant Leadership

 

A Sermon preached on Sunday 22 September (Pentecost XVIII) at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden and Mainz

Jeremiah 11:18-20, James 3:1-13-4:3, 7-8a, Mark 9:30-37

May these spoken words be faithful to the written word and lead us to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

You sometimes get the feeling that Jesus did not choose his disciples for their intellectual capabilities: they can be pretty obtuse at times! In the Gospel today, we heard what we call Jesus ‘ second (some commentators call it the third) Passion Prediction, we heard the first one last Sunday and you may recall that it led to Peter being rebuked by Jesus. In between, we have a semi-Passion prediction immediately following the Transfiguration, when Jesus says that it is “written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt.” (Mark 9:12) And today, Jesus again speaks very clearly about what awaits him: his betrayal and death, followed by his rising again. The reference to him being betrayed into human hands (9:31), which is new, is quite poignant, when we remember that Judas, the one who will betray him, is one of the twelve listening to his teaching.

Anyway, the message may be clear, and as I said this is second (or even third) such prediction, and yet “they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him” (9:32) Why were they afraid to ask him? They were probably afraid to know more, and as I said last week, were afraid of the consequences and content of Jesus’ call. And Jesus’ reaction to Peter’s challenge may even have made them reluctant to question him. None of us likes being rebuked in public by someone we love or admire. We can be sure that they did not get the message by the argument that follows! Arguing about who of them was the greatest, who would have the most important role to play in the kingdom, is exactly the opposite of Jesus’ call to “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (8:34)

This is a problem for Jesus. The NT Commentator William Barclay writes that Jesus wanted to write his message on the hearts of his chosen disciples. Rather than simply leave behind a set of propositions, his intention was “to leave behind him a band of persons on whom these propositions were written.”[1] And this was a very important proposition, the idea that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (9:35) It is a message that Jesus keeps on coming back to, in all of the gospels, in lots of stories and parables. It is at the centre of the reading from John’s Gospel (13:15-16) that we hear every year on Maundy Thursday, the account of the foot washing when Jesus says: “I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.”

In the Gospel passage we just heard, Jesus illustrates his message by taking a little child. In Jesus’ day, children had no status or privilege or rights (as an aside: Friday was Weltkindertag/World Day of Children in Germany and the focus of that day is all about protecting children’s basic rights, still an issue today). Welcoming a child means seeking out and welcoming someone who is helpless, someone for whom we can do things, and not as is usually the case someone with influence and power who can be useful to us. John F. Kennedy famously paraphrased Jesus’ teaching in his 1961 inaugural address with the words: “Ask not what your country can do for you... ask what you can do for your country.”

 Our ambition, Jesus is saying, is not for position or power or privilege, our ambition is to serve, just as he “came not to be served but to serve.” (Mark 10:45) We call this servant leadership, and this church has been and is blessed with many servant leaders. In my time with you, I've had wardens who have been willing put their own strongly held views behind them to follow the path it was best for the whole community. I've had wardens who have focused not only on leading the church, but on reaching out to those in need, both within and outside of our community. I've had wardens who stepped forward when I had to step back, and I’ve had wardens who have helped us take God’s call to care for creation seriously. Every single one of them, 6 in total so far, has put the needs of this community and our mission of service to the wider community and world first. And not just the wardens and the other vestry officers and members. In some way every single group at this church is about serving and supporting others.

There is also a danger in the last line of today's gospel reading: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Welcoming the child, as a symbol for those who need our help, is to welcome Jesus, and to welcome Jesus is to welcome God the Father who sent him: Embracing a child results in the presence of God. We could however easily misunderstand this as a requirement, and God’s presence therefore as the consequence or the sole reason to reach out to those in need, in order to gain a reward. And that would be very wrong. Reaching out to those in need is our reaction to God having already reached out to us, by sending Jesus to teach us, serve us, suffer for and with us, die for us and live again for us.

It is also simply the best way to live, it is good for us. When I googled the phrase “servant leadership” I discovered a whole secular management theory of that name that I knew nothing about that. And I studied management! Robert K. Greenleaf first popularized the phrase servant leadership in "The Servant as Leader", an essay published in 1970. In his theory, a servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power, the servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Later researchers have defined key 'functional' attributes of servant leadership such as vision, honesty, integrity, trust, service, living by example, appreciation of others, and empowerment! I hope Mr Greenleaf paid royalties to the Holy Spirit for his idea, it sounds suspiciously scriptural!

Servant Leadership is not therefore some illusory unrealistic idea, but a viable, successful and effective methodology. Traditional, power-based leadership is in the long run only good for the leader, never the led – we only need to look at countries with such leaders for proof and empirical evidence.  In the end both to serve is a gift and to be served is a gift. In the words of the Servant Song[2]

Brother, let me be your servant.

Let me be as Christ to you.

Pray that I might have the grace

To let you be my servant, too.

Amen.

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[1] Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, 256

[2] The Servant Song by Richard Gillard. Lyrics © Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publ.