A Job Worth Doing

A Sermon preached on February 5 at the Evensong Service at St. Willibrord’s Church, Munich

1 Peter 1:13-16, Luke 9:51-62

So, what do you think of the following job description?

Salary and Compensation: There is no salary, not even an accommodation allowance, but you are expected to be available at any time, and in any place, whenever the ‘boss’ wants you.      

Responsibilities & duties: Pretty simple – to be an agent of change and transformation.  

Qualifications/experience/skills: This job requires single mindedness, a clear forward-looking focus, a strong sense of vision, a willingness to stand for change and to discard old habits and structures that stand in the way of the change and transformation. Candidates need to “walk the talk.” And last but not least: applicants must trust the one they are working for absolutely.

So is anyone interested? Can I have a show of hands please? Well I’m afraid that this was the description of a job that you have already applied for. I have just rephrased what Jesus has to say in today’s gospel extract about those who want to follow him and his Way.

The whole central section of Luke’s Gospel, from chapter 9 through to 19, contains Jesus’ teaching on the nature of discipleship. Luke sets it, appropriately, in the context of a journey: Jesus’ Journey to Jerusalem which starts here with the line (9:51) “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” and ends with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Through his actions, through his parables and metaphors, and through direct teaching Jesus instructs those who follow him on all sorts of issues: on possessions and priorities, on prayer, on forgiveness and unconditional love, and on the costs of discipleship.  As I tried to show with my job description, it will not always be easy. Being a messenger for or a representative of the Kingdom of God does not bring great power or an exalted position; instead it can often lead to incomprehension and rejection. Jesus’ journey is not a triumphant march. The progress of the gospel of the kingdom is marked by acts and messages of love and of grace.

Jesus makes very clear that there are conditions attached to following him. His followers are not better than others, and they are certainly not necessarily clever – James’ and John’s question to Jesus “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans?” shows that they could be pretty thick at times. But Jesus does expect complete commitment. In the three examples we heard today Jesus uses exaggeration to make this point clear and to jolt his listeners. Just like his parables they are not to be taken literally, they are meant to make us think so that we can draw our own conclusions. To do that, we need to understand both the context, and the images. So let’s take a closer look:

The first volunteer's offer sounds open-ended; he will go anywhere Jesus goes. But Jesus wants to make clear that he is no ordinary teacher or rabbi. Jewish scholars would often leave home to live with their teachers to study the Torah. However Jesus, just like the Old Testament prophets, has no fixed abode and cannot offer those who follow him a comfortable place to live and to study, for even birds and animals will have more luxurious accommodation!  On the one hand, God will and does provide. But we cannot assume, unlike those who preach the prosperity gospel, or those who once joined the church for privilege, wealth and power that Christianity is all about financial blessing or that following Jesus will increase our material wealth and prosperity. Discipleship requires resolve.

The second scene involves a man who wishes to bury his father before he comes to follow Jesus. Jesus’ response, "Let the dead bury their own dead," (9:60) seems very harsh considering how important a proper and timely burial is in Judaism. We should not take it too literally, after all the dead cannot bury anyone! Jesus’ reply is a reminder, that not even the "best excuse" possible should be allowed to get in the way of discipleship. And I think today it can also be a warning both to individuals and to institutions, not to hold on to structures, habits, or customs that are “dead” and stand in the way of the Kingdom of God we are called to proclaim.

In the last short dialogue the potential disciple wants to say goodbye to his family first, which Jesus answers somewhat enigmatically with his statement, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’(9:62). We need to know that at that time the ploughman would guide the plough with one hand, and with the other drive the probably unruly oxen. If the ploughman were to look back, the furrow ahead would become crooked! Or in my case if I look back too long when riding my bicycle I will either come off the path or even fall off my bike! It is a plea for focus and for concentration on the task and vision ahead.

Complete commitment, utter resolve, a willingness to let go and to change, total focus – and all for no reward? And what if I can’t always give this commitment, if I slip up? As I said earlier, Jesus uses exaggeration to get his point across. If Jesus forgives the Samaritans who do not, and cannot support his journey to Jerusalem – in their eyes the site of the wrong temple – how much more will he forgive those of us who want to be his disciples and sometimes – or perhaps almost always - miss the mark. As for the reward, the Kingdom of God, the message of God’s goodness, that we are called to “go and proclaim” is the reward. In and through the Kingdom we will live in “harmony with God, within ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation.”[1] And I think that sounds worth working for!

Amen

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[1] The Catechism, BCP, 849

Cleansed and renewed

A sermon preached at St. Augustine's of Canterbury Episcopal Church, Wiesbaden on Sunday February 2nd

The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple: 

Psalm 84, Malachi 3:1-4, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40

[Personal Introduction]

I would very much prefer to be here with you in different circumstances, and I can imagine that today’s Psalm with its expressions of joy and delight in the temple, “happy are they who dwell in your house,” the psalmist writes, that this more than a little poignant as you think about having to leave this house.

And considering the circumstances I did also wonder whether you would be worried by the Old Testament reading from the prophet Malachi with its announcement of a messenger who will be like fire, and the question: “who can endure the day of his coming?” I certainly hope you can endure my coming! But of course the messenger that Malachi, the name itself means messenger by the way, is announcing is no normal human being but the Messiah: the messenger who is also the message: the Word of God.

So what does Malachi have to say about the Messiah and what we can expect from him? It all sounds a bit threatening or painful doesn’t it, “he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap,” especially when we think about what a refiner or fuller are and how they work. A refiner uses intense heat to melt and then purify an impure material – gold and silver are Malachi’s examples. And a fuller was someone who cleaned and thickened freshly-woven cloth – he or she made it full. The process involved cleaning, bleaching, wetting and beating and as fuller's soap was an alkali made from plant ashes I suspect that would be a painful process too if applied to us!

What we should also note, and that is the promise behind these two metaphors, is that neither process replaces or completely changes what was there before. The cloth or metal is cleaner, better, purer, and renewed. But the core or substance was already there, the accumulated dirt and muck just needed to go. This sounds threatening only if we are either too attached to the dross and the dirt or perhaps too afraid about what will be revealed underneath? There is no reason to be afraid. God already knows and loves what is inside or underneath, God knows our core being and God is willing to invest the time and the effort to help us bring this to the fore, to renew ourselves. That is the message of hope, the good news I take from this passage.

It reminds me of a scene in C.S. Lewis’ book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I recently caught the tail end of the film of the book on TV. The boy Eustace had been turned into a dragon because of his greed and selfishness and only Aslan, the lion and Christ figure, can remove the dragon skin and reveal Eustace’s true self. It is a painful process:  

“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. . . . And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. …. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. . . .”

The Letter to the Hebrews picks up a similar theme, but takes the promise of renewal one step further. To help us overcome sin, that dross and dirt we all accumulate, Jesus shared our flesh and blood: he took on our human nature with all its weakness and frailty. We know, the author of the letter writes, that Jesus can help us when we are being tested, when we experience suffering, when the process of renewal and purification hurts, because he suffered and was tested during his earthly life. He was not just tested during his Passion but also by temptations, through the betrayal of one of his close followers, and by humanity’s seeming inability to understand and act on his message. Jesus, God’s Son, knew and knows pain and can help us cope with the pain that comes with renewal. By the way, I am glad to read that Jesus did not come to help angels, as I would not have a chance otherwise!

Again, we do need to be afraid either of the process of testing or of what will be revealed in the process. Jesus is both a merciful and faithful high priest, he has atoned for our sins and he knows who we are, because he was like us in every respect. Adversity and suffering are neither punishments nor tests from God. We are very capable of devising our own tests and punishments. Instead God’s promise is that when we experience a time of trial and suffering we must trust in God and with God’s help and support we will not only make it through this time, but that we will grow and be refined in the process.

For Simeon and Anna, being tested meant waiting. Both were of great age when Jesus was presented in the Temple, but both were also certain that there would be good news at the end of their long and patient wait, a messenger and message of consolation and redemption.

And yet their joy is tinged with sadness and Simeon’s song of praise in the passage from Luke’s Gospel also has a dark side. On the one hand Simeon, like Anna, is overjoyed to see and to hold Jesus, the savior, and the light of revelation and glory. God has answered his prayers and rewarded his patient hope and waiting: ‘God has heard’ is what the name Simeon means. But at the same time he recognizes and warns that what Jesus stands for will be opposed. Jesus’ life and teaching were and are a threat to those in power, to the status quo, to carrying on as before. The result of this opposition, Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross, will not only test him but also his mother – that is the sword that will pierce her soul.

The good news is that Jesus suffering and death is not the end and that the light of the world is not extinguished. Instead, through the resurrection that Light shines even stronger than before.  Today is often known as Candelmas or in German ‘Lichtmess’ because since medieval times candles were blessed, lit, and carried in procession as a sign of the “Light to enlighten the nations” that Simeon proclaims Jesus to be in the song we call the Nunc Dimittis.

At the core of all three readings and of the images of refining, testing, and purification is a promise that applies equally to us as individuals and to the institutions we belong to, like the church. If we allow God to help us, we will be cleansed and refined. We do not need to be afraid as God is with us when we are tested – we are never alone during this painful process. It may burn, sting, hurt, and seem at times to take far too long. But what comes out the other side, both our renewed selves and our transformed institutions, will be better able to reflect the light of revelation and glory, the light of Christ, and will be better equipped to serve God’s purposes in transforming the world. In the words of Tom Wright, former Bishop of Durham, “There is nothing we face, today or tomorrow or the next day, in which Jesus cannot sympathize, help and rescue us, and through which he cannot forge a way to God’s new world.”[1]

This applies to St. Augustine’s too. If God has a purpose for this parish, and I for one am convinced God has, I would not be here otherwise, then you will come though this phase of testing, this process of refining, cleansed, purified, strengthened, renewed, and better able to act as messengers of and witnesses to the Word of God, to the sign, and to the Light that is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Amen

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[1] Tom Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, 21

A New Year's Resolution

A Sermon Preached at Ascension, Munich on the Second Sunday of Christmas (Jan. 5, 2014)

Psalm 84, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a, Luke 2:41-52

Christmas is the shortest season in the Church year. It lasts only 12 days, as we know from the carol, and includes, at the most only two Sundays after Christmas Day. So I was a little surprised, even shocked when a colleague recently told me that she was planning on celebrating Epiphany this Sunday, so shortening the Christmas season by one day. What will the poor 12 drummers do I thought – unlike the pipers, lords, ladies, maids, swans, geese, gold rings, calling birds, French hens, turtle doves and the partridge they only have just this one appearance? And more seriously, what a shame to miss the Gospel story of how Jesus’ parents manage to lose or forget him in Jerusalem!

Isn’t it amazing how little has changed over the last two thousand years in how parents and children interact? First Jesus’ parents make the mistake of not making sure Jesus is with them when they depart for home. If we imagine that the group of travelers are all friends, relatives, and acquaintances from Nazareth then this is not that unlikely. Once when we spent a long weekend with three couples we knew very well, and who all had children of the same age as ours, we managed to leave one child behind at the farm we were staying at – not one of mine I want to add. The children often swapped places to be with their friends of the same age. And the parents therefore assumed that the boy was in one of the other cars, as had happened before. It sounds to me as if the same thing happened to Mary and Joseph, only we weren’t a day’s journey away – the boy was spotted in the rear-view mirror of the last car when he came round the corner from having visited the rabbits on the farm we stayed at, and so they turned back to get him! 

In the Gospel story we can only imagine the agony of the parents once they discover that their son, Jesus is missing and they cannot find him for three whole days! And when they finally find Jesus his parents react with a very typical mixture of guilt, combined with relief, and expressed as an accusation: “Where have you been?” What were you thinking of?” or in the words of Mary: “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” (Luke 2:48) Jesus’ answer is however not typical. Instead of shouting back: “It’s not my fault, you left me behind,” his reply is a gentle rebuke. These are his first words by the way. Well not his very first words, I’m certain they were the Aramaic equivalent of ‘Mama” or ‘Papa,’ but his first recorded words in this Gospel: Mum, I don’t know why you were worried; you should have known where to find me – in my Father’s House. 

On a theological level this is Jesus confirming, indirectly, what others have already said about him. The Angel Gabriel, Zechariah, and Mary have all identified Jesus as the Savior and the Son of God earlier in the Gospel. And as Mary will find out later, at the foot of the cross, with much sadness, Jesus’ relationship to God and Jesus’ mission will always take precedence over his relationship to his earthly parents and over any personal interests. 

Then on a personal level we have a child talking back to his parents and parents who do not understand their son – so no surprises there! I have heard the next verse (Matthew 2:51) “Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them” described as meaning that Jesus was seriously grounded, so much so in fact that we do not hear from him for another 18 years!

But this passage is not just about practical parenting and growing up in 1^st century Palestine. Interestingly the Youth Group program we use at Ascension, Journey to Adulthood, uses this story from Luke’s Gospel as its theological and scriptural underpinning. Jesus is the model for this journey, for becoming adults, for personal and spiritual growth and they base the topics covered in the program, self-awareness, relationships and sexuality, spirituality and society, on the four areas in which Jesus developed or increased: “in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” (2:52) 

But I want to suggest that we can use these four areas of growth not just as a model for teenagers and their development, but also for ours. After all in God’s eyes we are all children. So where can we grow and how?

Firstly we are supposed to increase in wisdom. The word translated here as wisdom is in Greek Σοφία (sophia) – the root of the word philosophy, which means literally the love of knowledge. Sophia also stands for insight, skill, and intelligence and is not just or mainly theoretical knowledge but knowledge acquired by experience, knowledge with application. Elsewhere in Scripture we find the author of the Epistle of James using the word sophia to describe both the knowledge and practice of how to live a godly and upright life. And in Paul's Epistles it often stands for the knowledge of the divine plan of salvation for the world.

And how can you increase in this sort of knowledge or wisdom? By reading and studying: the Bible of course but also other devotional or spiritual books. And you can get to get to know God and God’s purposes better not just through reading religious literature. Poetry, science, novels, social sciences etc. are equally important: All of creation is God’s and God acts in the world, not just in church, so it is in the world where we can often learn more about how to live a godly life and more about God’s goodness and love. What we need is what Paul prayed for in his letter to the Ephesians: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ … may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.” (Ephesians 1:17)  And we must never assume that we already know or understand everything there is to know about God, and God’s plans. I certainly don’t, I know that increasing in wisdom is an ongoing and never-ending process of lifelong learning.

Secondly we are to increase in years or, as the word ἡλικίᾳ (helikia) can also be translated in age, in maturity or in stature. But doesn’t that happen automatically? When we are young we cannot get older quick enough. And when we are older we are no longer so enthusiastic about the aging process! For me increasing in years stands for making use of and learning from our experience, which of course includes not just the joyful moments, but also our setbacks, suffering, questions and doubts: the ones that leave scars behind. We need these experiences too. One of the prayers in the BCP – an alternative General Thanksgiving (on page 836 if you want to look it up) contains the line: “We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.” We also need to deal with doubts and questions to grow in faith. It will be a much more robust and mature faith than one that is just based on received doctrines or a faith that  expects everything to go well all the time. 

Thirdly we are supposed to increase in divine favor: χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ (chariti para theo). The word charis, the root of our word charity, can also be translated as love, kindness, gratitude, or grace so this is a call to grow in the grace of God. On the one hand this is impossible. Surely we can’t grow in God’s grace because we already have it, all of it! Grace is not earned it is a free gift for as Paul writes, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” (Eph. 1:4) On the other hand regular prayer and worship, and partaking of God’s sacraments do no harm at all as they enable us to experience God and God’s love and power. God still takes pleasure in these interactions. It’s why God created us in the first place – to be in relationship and to have something and someone to love and to be loved by. In that sense we can increase in God’s favor.

And finally there is the call to increase in human favor: χάριτι παρὰ ἀνθρώποις (chariti para anthropois) – which we might also translate as to increase in the gratitude of humanity. Well, it is clear why humanity should be grateful to Jesus: he gave himself for whole world. But how can we increase in human favor or gratitude? We can do so by following Jesus’ example and command. By our acts of love, by the respect we show others, by our engagement for the world, by the way we live our lives as people of faith. Paul is grateful to the Ephesians because he has heard both of their faith in the Lord Jesus and of their “love towards all the saints.” (1:15)

Today is our first service since New Year’s Day and so it is definitely not too late for New Year’s resolutions. Might I suggest that one of your resolutions be your personal plan on how you intend to grow this year in “wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor?” Your church is also here to help you put that resolution into effect with opportunities for study and formation, with a listening ear for any struggles or questions, with worship, prayer and retreats, and with our outreach programs or, to put it more simply, to help you live a full life in Christ.

Amen