A DIFFERENT KIND OF KING MATT 25: 31-46

A few years ago, two schoolgirls on the Israeli side of the border with Jordan were shot dead by a a Jordanian soldier who seems to have just gone berserk. The pain in the village of Beit Shamesh was immense as was the anger at this outrage. However, to the surprise of the entire world, the Jordanian King Hussein left his palace and went to the homes of the slain girls. In each home, he went down on his knees and looked up to the grieving families to say, “I beg you, forgive me, forgive me. Your daughter is like my daughter, your loss is my loss. May God help you to bear your pain.”

I remember that story because the actions of King Hussein were not what is normally expected of a King, let alone a proud Hashemite King. Indeed, our normal picture of Kings is of those who are proud and who often with relish wield authority over life an death. Our own history is full of stories about the self interested use of power by many of our Kings and Queens.

Today, real power rarely lies with Kings but the use of power continues to be a matter that commands our attention.

Our world all too often sees the power of weapons. In addition to the threats of terrorism, we see many countries developing and acquiring more powerful weapons which could conceivably far exceed the effects of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Power lies with he who has the biggest toys and the greatest propensity to use them.

Our world today sees the reality of economic power. Peoples’ livelihoods can be wiped out by decisions taken in offices far away. The economically powerful can make decisions that make or break the lives of so many others.

And furthermore our world today sees the power of marketing and advertising. Day by day we discover needs we never knew we had and the big brands so often claim a loyalty from many especially of our young people as they leave sweatshop workers living on a pittance whilst paying a fortune to that modern curse, celebrities, who are paid great fortunes, to convince us that their brand of trainer or whatever is the only option for those who want to be a part of the in crowd.

Surely, we are at a time when it is sensible to be wary of power and the motives of those who wield it.

And yet, today, we come to Christ the King Sunday. Now ecumenically celebrated, Christ the King Sunday came into being in 1925 at the instigation of Pope Pius X1. He was uneasy at the way society was emerging in the wake of the Great War. Lenin had come to power in Russia and Mussolini was on the march in Italy. Men who used power in an unscrupulous way were all over the place. And , perhaps having seen the Papacy lose the Papal States, he felt that the church and Christ were being sidelined. So this particular day was inaugurated with a vision of encouraging people to look to the greater Kingship of Christ.

But that Kingship is a Kingship like no others. For Christ turns all our notions of Kingship upside down. He was not materially wealthy. He held no position of state. Indeed although he never espoused violence, he was subjected to the violence of the state through a show trial and execution with religious establishment and occupying political power both implicated. He left no writings . And yet!

And yet it is as that famous piece of prose ‘One Life’ puts it;

Nineteen centuries have come and gone and today he is the centrepiece of progress and I am far within my mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the Kings that ever reigned put together have not affected human life upon this earth as has that one solitary life.

So what is this Kingship about? Like the Jordanian King, he leaves the place of splendour to be at the place of suffering. In that place he allows himself to be vulnerable to the very worst that humanity can offer. And yet through it he shows love to the unworthy, brings hope to the despairing and offers forgiveness to the guilty. For this is the way of the self giving Kingship of Christ.

And this Kingship is a Kingship that challenges us in the exercise of power today. You see King Jesus calls us out of the Me Me society and challenges us with a vision in which justice is at the heart of society with a particular emphasis on those who are seen as the losers. In this there is a continuity with the Old Testament emphasis. We heard this morning from Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a man who had no doubt that authority had been misused in Judah. The unjust rulers were in his eyes responsible for the fact that he and many others were far from home in exile whilst back home Jerusalem lay in rubble. His vision of God is a vision in which God tells him;

‘I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.’

For Jesus, the vision goes further. In the vision of the sheep and the goats, he proclaims that what we do for the vulnerable - hungry, naked, imprisoned- we do for him for he is there in the places of vulnerability. Now some would contend that in this vision with terms such as ’these brothers of mine,’ a phrase that Jesus elsewhere uses for his followers, that Jesus is peaking of what we do for Christians. And yet that goes against the real message of Matthew’s Gospel which time and time again shows Jesus’ concerns and compassions going beyond any definable community. After all is not the calling of the church to be the one organisation which exists as much for those who are not its members as for those who are its members?

Still in our treatment of the vulnerable, is how Jesus sees our loyalty to himself being tested. Mother Theresa of Calcutta once put it well when perhaps reflecting on our Gospel reading she wrote;

‘At the end of our life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by;

“I was hungry and you gave me to eat.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was homeless and you took me in.”
Hungry not only for bread - but hungry for love
Naked not only for clothing - but naked of human respect and dignity
Homeless not only for a room of bricks - but homeless because of rejection.
This is Christ in distressing surprise.’

And finally, how does King Jesus treat us when we fail? Here’s a story that may help.

A man dies and goes to heaven where he is met by St Peter at the Pearly Gates.

‘Here’s how it works’ says St Peter. ‘You need 100 points to make it into heaven. Tell me the good things you have done and I will give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in.’

‘Well’ said the man. ‘I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart.’

‘Wonderful’ says St Peter. ‘That’s worth 3 points.’

‘3 points’ replies the man looking a little dejected. ‘Well I attended church all my life and to be fair I was a pretty good giver.’

‘Terrific!’ says St Peter. ‘That’s certainly worth a point.’

‘Only one point!’ The man by now looks worried. ‘Well I started a soup kitchen in my city and I did work in a shelter for the homeless.’

‘Fantastic, that’s good for 2 more points’ exclaims St Peter.

‘Only 2 points!’ the man cries. ‘At this rate the only way I’ll get into heaven is by the grace of God.’

‘Bingo! 100 points!’ shouts St Peter. ‘Come on in!’

And friends that’s what the Kingship of Jesus is about. It turns the world right side up. It values those who are the most vulnerable and calls on us who are the subjects of Jesus to do the same. But ultimately, when we miss the mark, thanks to a thing called grace, it gives to us more than we could ever deserve.

What a King! Truly, a different kind of King!


This sermon was preached in Bideford on November 20th 2005 - Christ the King Sunday

MEMORIES

On January 27th 2001, the first Holocaust Memorial Day was commemorated at Westminster Central Hall. Amidst the story of sufferings, Rabbi Jonathan Sachs recounted how after the liberation of Auschwitz, there was discovered in a crevice in the wall a small scrap of paper. It had been placed there by a former inmate in what was a desperate communication from that place of death. On it was just one word - Zahor - the Hebrew for “Remember!”

Remembrance is something that we often need to do. In Nicaragua at a time when so many people were disappearing as a result of the then government’s death squads, Archbishop Oscar Romero began the practice of reading the names of those who had disappeared in the previous week, prior to the celebration of the Eucharist. And as each name was read, the congregation acknowledging their link with those who had been taken from this life, would respond by proclaiming “Presente” - "Present!"

Today we come with our own need to remember. We remember those who were caught up in the wars that have afflicted our land during the past century. We remember;

Soldiers and civilians,

Heroes on the battlefield and those who in fear deserted,

Those in whom war brought out the best and those in whom it brought out the worst

Those on our side and those who were the foe

All alike caught up in the human tragedy that is war. For make no mistake, what we are remembering today is the tragic propensity of the human race to resolve its conflicts by expecting the ultimate sacrifice particularly from its young on the field of conflict.

Today we can have no doubts as to the awfulness of the events we remember. It was after all a soldier, General Sherman, a man fought in the American Civil War, who perhaps put it best when he proclaimed;

“War is hell!”

Indeed it is horrendous to think how those who might in other circumstances have got on perfectly well, find themselves in mortal combat in our so often divided world.

One of the most moving episodes of the Great War was the unofficial Christmas truces that took place over the Christmas of 1914. Sharing fags, the singing of carols and apparently the odd game of football, British and German soldiers for precious hours or days enjoyed their shared humanity before their respective High Commands ordered a resumption of the slaughter of war that was to continue for another ghastly four years.

The writer Thomas Hardy puts it well in poem;
“Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipper kin!

But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face ,
I shot at him and he at me,
And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because-
Because he was my foe,
Just so - my foe of course he was;
That’s clear enough; although

He thought he’d ’list perhaps,
Off- hand like - just as I -
Was out of work - had sold his traps-
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You’d treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown”

And in those words we are reminded of a shared humanity which points us to both the awfulness of war and the place of hope. For all those who fell in the conflicts we remember today, were precious children of God. Each and everyone valued by the God who sees even the sparrow fall unnoticed in the street. How much more does God care for the fallen who are in our hearts and minds today!

During the past week there was a television programme which looked at the Great War through some of the survivors. When the programme was begun there were twenty seven survivors. Now there are only four survivors left. In the programme, the humanity of these grand old men shone through. Some had very painful memories. One had not spoken of the war for eighty years until in a nursing home he suffered flashbacks as a result of bright lights. But perhaps the most moving scene was when one of these splendid old ‘Tommies’ whilst visiting war sites in France, went to lay a wreath in one of the German cemeteries. His humanity was a shining light on a site where he as a young man had witnessed all too painfully the darkness of death and destruction. And if he could take time to ‘remember’ those who had been the foe, then surely it is only right that we take time to remember those who went from this area and made the ultimate sacrifice

Back to the story from Auschwitz and we find from the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs the ultimate purpose of what remembrance is about for after telling the story, he observed;

“It is for us to remember not in hate or anger, but simply so that what happened should not happen again.”

This idea that remembrance is a key to a new future is something that is echoed at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem where the visitor is greeted by an inscription that reads;

“In remembrance lies the secret of deliverance.”

But that is not an understanding that should in any way be alien to us for it is at the heart of our service of Holy Communion. There we remember the sacrifice of Christ which empowers us to live for him in the world.

This morning we seek once more a path to deliverance. So much of human suffering is beyond any explanation. And yet the Scripture give us a vision beyond war. Isaiah offers a vision of new inclusive communities in his vision of a banquet of all peoples. He dares to imagine that God will ‘destroy the shroud that enfold all peoples’ and a future in which death will be swallowed for ever. Instead is offered a hope of a time when ‘swords will be turned into ploughshares.’ Time and again from the Scriptures comes the calling for the people of God to be peacemakers. And surely that is our calling in response to the debt of honour that we owe to the fallen and all those who have suffered in conflicts.

Recalling the sacrifices of precious people calls us to

- let not their memory dim

- to treat well and with respect those who have served in times of peril and surely it is saddening to read the British Legion’s report on how many of our veterans are rather than living as heroes, living in poverty

- to commit ourselves to the search for peace and mutual respect between peoples.

Back in 1940 Coventry Cathedral was destroyed as a result of heavy bombing. In the rubble workmen found a large number of nails from the Middle Ages. The nails were gathered up and fashioned into crosses plated with silver. One cross of these nails was set on an altar in the ruins of the old cathedral. Behind it is a large charred cross and inscribed on the wall behind are the words, “Father forgive.”

Many of these crosses have been sent to other countries and thousands of postcards depicting the Coventry Cross of Nails and the words, “Father, forgive” have been distributed all around the world. Out of destruction has come a symbol of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.

But forgiveness, reconciliation and peace can only come against a background of remembering. Barbara Streisland’s classic song, ‘The Way we were’ contains the haunting lines;

“What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget”

But that is about evading reality. Today we do remember because it the right things to do and because it is the only background that can enable us to repay all those who sacrificed by creating a world of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.


This was a Sermon for Remembrance Day Nov 13th 2005 preached at Bideford.

BUT WHAT IS ENOUGH? LUKE 12:13-21

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story entitled ‘How Much land does a Man Need?’ It tells the story of a peasant named Pakhom who sees his problem as being a lack of land. Should he have enough land, he comments that he would not even fear the Devil himself.

His opportunity arises when the landowner of a nearby estate decides to sell her property and so he decides to buy forty acres of this land. To finance this, he has to sell a colt, half of his bee colony, hire out one of his sons and to borrow the rest from his bother in law. The purchase works out well. Thanks to a good Harvest he is able to pay of all his debts.

End of story you might think but No! Soon he feels cramped and develops problems with his neighbours and so hearing of land beyond the Volga which is available at a decent price, he sells his land and purchases more land than he could ever have dreamt of owning.

But once again he comes to the conclusion that he needs yet more land. Some years later he hears that another landowner is prepared to sell 1,300 acres for a good price. Pakhom is on the verge of buying this land when he hears from a passing dealer of some far away land which he could buy for next to nothing. And so off he sets again. There he meets a chief who offers to sell him all the land he could walk around by day for a mere 1,000 rubles. There is but one catch. If he has not returned to his starting point by sundown, he will lose both the 1,00o rubles and the land.

Pakhom spends the night before the walk in a state of total excitement and the riches that lie ahead. In the morning he meets with the Chief who puts his hat on the starting point and with that Pakhom sets off to the rising Sun. And so Pakhom walks for miule after mile. Each time he thinks of turning, the land seems to good to lose and so he goes on and on until at breakfast he makes his first turn. The next turn, he puts off time and again until just after lunch. But by then he has gone so far that he is tiring and the walk back becomes ever more difficult. He realises that he has tried to cover too much ground. As he look up, he sees the Sun setting. Fearful that he is about to lose everything he runs, runs despite the pain in his legs and chest. But time is short, too short and so with the Sun nearly set, he makes a final surge towards the starting point where the Chief is waiting for him. And as he reaches the laughing Chief, his legs give way.
“Ah that’s a fine fellow, he has gained much land” says the Chief. But for what? Pakhom has died in the effort and now in Tolstoy’s immortal phrase, “Six feet from hi head to his heels was all he needed.”

A strange story! Like Jesus’ story of the rich fool a rather morbid story. But No! For the message of both of these stories is about how we chose to live our lives. Pakhom like the Rich Fool has been seduced into living for things. Like the rich fool, he has lost the capacity to be satisfied for both of these characters are powerful warning of how materialism can distort our lives.

Now, at this point a brief cautionary note. This Parable reminds me of a much misquoted Scripture. How often we hear it said that ‘money is the root of all evil.’ Nowhere does the Bible say such a thing. The relevant Scripture is that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ And so, the failing of the rich fool is not that he had money or even that he invested it for any economic system requires profits to be invested for future requirements. No, the sin of the rich fool is that he has allowed the acquisition of things to dominate his whole life. His view of life was a self centred view that emphasised Me and Mine above all other considerations.
In a sense the Rich Fool is an echo of the Rich Young Man who approached Jesus. In neither case are they condemned for their affluence. In both cases, their problem is that they put that affluence at the centre of their lives pushing God out to the edges. Here is where the conflict comes with the teachings of Christ who urges us to be open to God in our lives and to be aware and responsive to the needs of others as demonstrated by the Parable of the Good Samaritan which we focused on last week.

But perhaps at this point we need to open ourselves to the message of Christ in this parable. For are not we all open to the same attitude as the Rich Fool. We live in a society where modern day marketing has immense power to create in us needs we never knew we had. Gadgets, bigger wardrobes and flashier cars nag away at all of us. We all know the need to do or achieve something different and in no time our focus can depart from God. Our parable this morning is a wake up call. It doesn’t call us to hair shirt living but it reminds us that as creatures of God, we need to keep our focus on God and what God calls us to do.

As Mother Theresa put it;

At the end of life we will not be judged by hown many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by
“I was hungry and you gave me to eat.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was homeless and you took me in.”
Hungry not only for bread
But hungry for love
Naked not only for clothing
But naked of human respect and dignity.
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks
But homeless of rejection.
This is Christ in distressing surprise.’

And so this morning, amidst the activity of life we take time out to come to a simple table where we might receive the gifts of Christ, bread and wine. And as we encounter the living Christ who accepts us, we seek his help to keep our lives in focus.
AMEN

This sermon was preached in Bideford on November 6th 2005 at a Communion Service. It was the last of a 3 part series on 'The Parables of Jesus.'

NEIGHBOURS - MORE THAN AN AUSSIE SOAP! LUKE 10: 25 - 37

It was during the war in the former Yugoslavia. A reporter covering the violence in Sarajevo saw a young girl fall to the ground, hit by a sniper’s bullet. He threw down his pen and paper and ran to a man who was holding the stricken child. Seeing the gravity of the situation, the journalist guided the man and child into his car and then sped off in the direction of the hospital.
As they drove through the streets, the man holding the girl called out, “Hurry, my friend, my child s still alive.” Moments later he called out again, “Hurry, my friend my child is still breathing.” A little later with a voice that betrayed some desperation, he called out again, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm.”

Alas, by the time they reached the hospital, the child had died. As the two men sat together, the man who had held the child turned to the reporter and said, “Now comes a terrible task. I must go and tell her father what has happened.”

The journalist looked at the man with shock before saying, “But I thought she was your child.”

“No” replied the man “but aren’t they all our children?”

A 20th Century story that reminds us of our interconnectedness with one another, a message that is at the heart of the parable that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan.

Let us just for a moment look to the background of this parable. Jesus has been asked for the way to eternal life. He has reminded the man of the Old Testament Law. The man when asked what is in the Law, answers with words taken from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, words in other Gospels attributed to Jesus but in Luke’s Gospel receiving the assent of Jesus - namely to love God with heart, soul, strength and mind - and also to love one’s neighbour as oneself. These are accepted by Jesus as summarising the Law and encompassing its spirit. In short, the follower of Christ is called to love God with all his or her being and for that to be expressed in the love of others. In a sense the two go together for the ways of God are ways of love and kindness.

I remember years ago hearing of a story in which a man arrived at a church to be warmly greeted at the door. Ignoring the warmth of the greeting, he muttered angrily, “ I came to Church to worship God, not to socialise with the likes of you!” In a real sense he had missed the point for the worship of God is not just expressed in as it were addressing the one who is on high. Surely it is also horizontal in its direction being directed to God whom we meet through what the Quakers call the ‘Divine Spark’ which is to be found in others whom we encounter.

But back to the story that Jesus told. The man wanted to know more and so we find him asking Jesus who is his neighbour. And at that Jesus tells this well known story. It is about a reckless traveller going on what then and even into the 20th Century was a dangerous journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a journey which stretched for some 20 miles with a descent from 2,300 feet above sea level to 1,300 feet below sea level. It was rocky and full of sharp turnings which made it a happy hunting ground for brigands. So notorious was the road that in the 5th Century Jerome tells us that it was known as “The Bloody Way.” Only a fool would dare to travel it alone and it was about such a fool that Jesus tells his story about. Nobody listening would be remotely surprised to hear that this man received a good going over. After all he had earned it with his stupidity.

But the story moves on to look at those who later came down the road. The first such people were a priest and a levite, good respectable religious men. But for their own reasons, as they see the battered man, they decide that he is not their responsibility and so pass by on the other side. But then comes a third man, a Samaritan! I wonder if there was a groan from Jesus’ listeners at this. After all they would have seen Samaritans as the enemy. Five centuries of animosity between Jew and Samaritan had taken place and there was in the lifetime of Jesus, no sign of historic handshakes or the likes. The Samaritan had no reason to care for a battered Jew but there we find the rub! For amazingly the Samaritan far from administering another kicking actually administers first aid to the wounded man before taking him to an inn and paying for his convalescence there. The Samaritan, unlike the beaten man’s own people, emerges as the true neighbour of the battered Jew.

Sometimes now, we tame this story into being a rather nice story but I am sure that most of those who first heard Jesus tell it, heard it through clenched teeth because this was a story that challenged their prejudices and suggested that even those whom they most despised were the people whom the command, “Love your neighbour” brought them into contact with.
And heard truly today, it continues to be a story with the power to shock and discomfort. For its essential message is that our responsibilities are not simply to “Me and Mine” but to those whom we decidedly see as “Other.” Oh, I know that none of us gets worked up about the small community of Samaritans that still exists in the Middle East but I wonder if we too see some people whose beliefs, lifestyle or place of background discomfort us as being beyond the pale. Well, this parable challenges us to examine our points of prejudice and to see that those we find it hardest to see as our neighbours, are precisely that, just as us, children of God. And so, this parable rebukes us should we be tempted to dehumanise others in our hearts and challenges us to see in neighbourliness not the sickly niceness of the Australian soap, but a calling to work for fair play for those unjustly treated in life even when at times they are in part the architects of their misfortunes.

But how far does all of this go? Let me tell you about Michael Weisser a prominent Jew who moved to Lincoln in Nebraska USA. As he and his wife were unpacking, they received a phone call telling them they would be sorry to have moved there. Soon they received hate mail purporting to come from the Klu Klux Klan with sick racist and anti semitic pictures. The police when contacted, advised that it probably came from Larry Trapp who was the leading Klansman in that state. They warned that he had a history of violence, making explosives which were used against the Klan’s victims. Indeed they had reason to believe that he was plotting to blow up the synagogue that Weisser was called to lead.

Now Trapp despite all of this was confined to a wheel chair as a result of lat stage diabetes. So when he began a race hate TV series on a cable channel, Weisser rang his hotline phone number and reminded him that under his hero Hitler’s laws, Trapp would have been amongst the first victims.

Over time, Weisser continued to phone the hotline. One day, Trapp picked it up and responded aggressively in the end demanding to know why Weisser kept ringing. At that moment Weisser remembered a suggestion from his wife and so responded, “ Well I was thinking you might need a hand with something, and I wondered if I could help. I know you’re in a wheel chair and I thought maybe I could take you to the grocery store or something.”

Trapp gave a sort of gruff thanks. Weisser continued with the calls and eventually Trapp admitted that he was having to do some thinking. But in no time Trapp was back with the same old hate filled rants. Next time when they spoke there was a row and Trapp admitted that he found it hard to get out of his old ways. The next evening, however, he phoned Weisser and told him he wanted to give up his old ways. That night they met and amid many a tear embraced.
Ultimately, Trapp left all his racist organisations and wrote many a letter of apology. When his health deteriorated further, he moved in with the Weissers and Mrs Weisser gave up her job to nurse him. He even converted to Judaism.

Larry Trapp, a man who fro childhood experienced the violence of his own father had met his own Good Samaritan and been changed by the experience.

Most of us cannot imagine going as far as Michael Weisser. Yet there is no greater need to day than that we show value to those who are other than us. It is only commonsense for as Martin Luther King observed,

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Yes, in our world of diversity, we need to recognise that all who hurt are indeed our children.
This morning as we look to God who reconciles the world to himself, may we take seriously, the call of God made flesh that we should seek reconciliation and real love in a world where we all are NEIGHBOURS!

This sermon was preached at a service of baptism at Bideford Methodist Church on October 30th 2005 as the second in a series of 3 sermons from 'Parables of Jesus.'

FORGIVENESS UNLIMITED

When I left the Isle of Man, I suspected that there would be a number of people who I had met who I would never hear of again. One of those was Robin Oake who for much of our time there was the Chief Constable of the Isle of Man Constabulary. Before you get excited about a possibly colourful past, I had better disabuse you. My dealings with Robin Oake were strictly on areas of Christian activity. During my first year in Kirk Michael he was involved in supporting a number of meetings at the Methodist Church which were organised by a Christian body to whom we let the church out. I also served with him on Walk Isle of Man. I can’t say that I was close to him but I appreciated that he was a very sincere man who was as straight as a dye.

It was whilst in Cambridge that I heard of a policeman who had been stabbed to death in Manchester. Even the name Stephen Oake failed to register with me but what caught my eye was reading of Robin who turned out to be Stephen’s father, in a tearful interview spoke of how he was praying that God would help him forgive his son’s killer. In subsequent interviews, Robin Oake has spoken of praying for the killer of his sin, a killer who is now serving a life sentence. Had I never met Robin Oake, the cynic in me could easily have thought that what I read was just words but I know enough of this man to know that he who has suffered a terrible loss, is sincere in his belief that following Christ leads him to express forgiveness even to one who has taken from him a much loved son.

Today is the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York. I guess that most of us can remember the moment when we heard what had happened. In my case I was popping into a shop to buy computer ink cartridges. My first instinct was to visit a nearby member of one of my churches and together we sat in silence watching as events unfurled.

In the years that have followed, there have been two wars, further terrorist outrages and we seem more ready to excuse torture than was the case in the past. Whilst there are those with whom it is difficult to envisage dialogue, I think that we are moving more and more to a polarised world in which polarisation are getting ever larger. A while ago I watched a short film which suggested that;

Terrorism is bred in
Fear
Anger
Hatred.

Terrorism creates in the people against whom it is aimed;
Fear
Anger
Hatred in otherwise peaceful people

Retaliation creates;
Fear
Anger
Hatred in innocent people who suffer from such retaliation

And of course terrorism is bred in such
Fear
Anger
Hatred

In other words, a cycle of hatred and violence is self perpetuating and it is an ever increasing circle in its scope. And I would add that what is true regarding nations is also true of families and communities.

No wonder Mahatma Gandhi expressed the view that “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” originally devised as a means of keeping conflict within proportionality, ultimately leads to a world of blind and toothless people.

And so we come to the words of Jesus. Jesus is clearly in favour of breaking the cycle. His disciples want to know how many times they should forgive those who wrong them. Is seven times enough? But Jesus isn’t into their numbers game. He comes up with the unbelievably high formula of seventy times seven. In other words, Jesus suggests that there is no limit but that there is a calling to go on and on forgiving. In a sense Jesus turns upside down all our notion of common sense and the expert’s view of statecraft.

But we all know that forgiveness is at times a tall order. I think of my mother’s cousin who was a prisoner in a Japanese prisoner of war camp for a lengthy period of time. I am told that when he returned home after the war, neither his mother or girl friend recognised him at first. Having never talked about the war with him, I do not know if he ever forgave his captors or even the nation that did such wrongs to him. I can’t but think it would have been asking a lot of him.

And then I think of Simon Wiesenthal the Jewish prisoner of the Nazis who later became famous for hunting down Nazi war criminals. He wrote a moving book entitled “ The Sunflower.” It tells of his time as a prisoner and of his encounter with a dying SS soldier. He was brought to this man who had but hours left to live and listened to the man’s story of having been involved in a massacre of Jews. The soldier knew he had done wrong and wished the forgiveness of a Jew. Wiesenthal listened patiently to the man and even provided him with water. However, the request for forgiveness was something that Wiesenthal could not respond positively to in part at least due to the Jewish understanding that one can only forgive what has been done against oneself as opposed to others. So in silence he rose and left the man.

Some might take another view. An example is Bud Welch. He lost his daughter in the Oklahoma bombing. For a time he was consumed with bitterness. But then he recalled how his daughter had so passionately opposed the death penalty and had told him before her death that it never solved things for the victims. So he began to speak out against executions and even visited the killer Timothy Mc Veigh’s father and did everything he could to oppose the execution which ultimately took place.

For indeed one of the problems with holding on to grudges is that they can consume us. Nelson Mandela served 27 years in gaol. Some time after his release, he met with the then President Clinton. Clinton had one big question which he wanted t put. It concerned a look on Mandela’s face as he walked to the gate of the prison. Clinton saw upon Mandela’s face a look of anger and hatred which he couldn’t reconcile with the Mandela who he was now meeting and who he knew had taken great steps for reconciliation. In response to the question, Mandela explained that he thought of all that had happened to his family and friends in those years before adding;
Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, "Nelson! For twenty seven years you were their prisoner but you were always a free man! Don’t allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner."

And in a real way we can learn from those words. For bitterness can only enslave us and prevent us from being the people that God wishes us to be, the people who reflect his love and peace.

But it is inevitably hard. Corrie ten Boom knew how hard it was. She spent years in Ravensbruck Concentration camp where unspeakable horrors took place. There her own sister Betsy was among those who died. In 1947, whilst speaking in Munich, one of the cruellest guards at Ravensbruck approached her. He told her how he had become a Christian and that he knew he had God’s forgiveness but he wanted to hear hers as well. In that moment she just could not reach out to this man and so she prayed for God’s help and ultimately she was able to fully forgive this man who had done such wrong to her and so many others.

So are there limits to forgiveness. With God, the answer is No! But what of us? Well, surely forgiveness to be real has to be sought by the wrongdoer. It is not about our forgetting what has happened or our assuming that the person couldn’t have done better. It is about recognising the wrongdoer as someone capable of moral actions even if they have acted immorally. It is necessary that they sincerely seek forgiveness and it is that sincerity rather than the scope of the wrong done that should be the gate to forgiveness. For nations I suspect that what is needed is the resolve for reconciliation and an ability not to simply demonise as increasingly is being done against the wider community of Islam. We certainly need to desist from judging others by their worse moments or we might be judged harshly on the same basis.

More and more I sense that in our world there is a tendency to dehumanise others with all the horrible consequences that such involves. Against such a background, I suggest we need to treat seriously the countercultural teaching of Jesus.
AMEN

This sermon was preached at the evening service at Northam on September 11th

SHOCK AND GRACE LUKE 15:11-32

The film “Amadeus” tells the story of the relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The music of Mozart is amongst the greatest music ever written and it is close to impossible to imagine a time when it becomes forgotten. Salieri was also a distinguished musician, the Court Composer of the Austrian Emperor no less. However, his music was no match for that of Mozart and Salieri knew it. His earnest desire to write great music of praise to God was eclipsed by the ill mannered brat of a delinquent that was Mozart. Salieri just cannot cope with God so gifting the obnoxious Mozart that he becomes consumed with bitterness, eventually turning on a crucifix to utter his pain;

From now on we are enemies. You and I. Because you choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me only the ability to recognize the incarnation.

In these words, Salieri as many have done since finds the grace of God unfair.

Perhaps at this stage we need to look at a few simple definitions. When we talk of justice we talk of getting what we deserve. When we talk of mercy we talk of being spared what we deserve. But when we speak of grace we speak of getting what we do not deserve, the generous kindness of God.

And it is such grace that is at the heart of the Parable of the Prodigal Son or as perhaps it is better described, The Parable of the Loving Father.

In this story, Jesus uses the Father figure to teach us something of the nature of God. Sometimes, we struggle to appreciate just how wronged the Father is by his younger son. Sometimes, we simply see the younger son as a man in a hurry. However, the New Testament scholar Kenneth Bailey who lived in the Middle East for many years points out the uniqueness of the son demanding his share of the inheritance. It simply does not happen in the countless Middle Eastern stories of two brothers where often the younger brother is a rascal. Why? Because the request is so extreme that it would be understood as expressing a desire for the father to die. In short the younger brother is telling the father to “drop dead!” And yet rather the beat his Son for his callous request as the hearers would expect, the Father gives him his inheritance and his freedom. For this Father is not acting as a Jewish father would be expected to act. Instead, he is the Father who gives his child the chance to explore in freedom.

This surprise gets added to later for when the Son returns with precious little repentance but rather the actions of self interest, the Father responds not with chastisement but with instant forgiveness and generosity, restoring the Son to all the joys of being a Son, the very status that the Son had so abused.

Think back to what grace is, the giving of what we do not deserve and here you will find it in full.

And in this we see the grace of God to you and me. Here we see God not as a stern monarchical figure as so often the Church has portrayed God as being but as a parent filled with the extremities of love, crossing even the boundaries of gender by running to kiss the Son and later by remonstrating with the sullen older Son in a way that would normally be the conduct of a mother rather than a father. No wonder that Rembrandt is his painting of “The Return of the Prodigal Son” goes out of his way to portray the Father with feminine as well as masculine characteristics. It is in the merger of the two that we are able to see the immensity and the self giving that is the Father’s love. And God made flesh in Jesus shows us how much that grace is for us. Not for nothing does the Requiem Mass write of Christ’s Passion and journey to the cross with the moving words;

Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey.

And so in a world in which people are written off for their failings, the grace of God reveals that the God of the Universe, values us in full knowledge of our shortcomings and offers to each of us value and love beyond anything we deserve. So when we feel as nothing, written off by others, God in love longs to embrace us with the arms of absolutely unconditional love. And God has that feeling for us not because of any illusions as to how good we are but in full knowledge of our shortcomings. And that is what grace is about.

Sometimes, today, I hear Christians wonder what the followers of Jesus have to offer to the world today. We have no monopoly on great music, fine literature or beautiful art. We have found that whilst in the 19th Century it was the Church which opened up the possibilities of education and provided much health care, the public sector can now do this much better than we can. When it comes to working with the young, other organisations can provide much better equipment particularly with regards to the likes of computers. Yes, in most fields, we have precious little that is unique to offer. And yet we have one precious thing to share which people need- grace! That is the news of God’s grace and the potential to be a means of God’s grace to others.

Phil Yancey tells an appalling story of a friend. This friend was approached by a prostitute who was in a terrible state. Homeless, sick and hungry, she came to Yancey’s friend and revealed a dreadful story of how her drug addiction had taken her so low that she was renting out her own daughter to her clients so that she could afford drugs. Yancey’s friend felt intense anguish knowing that he would have to report this woman to the authorities and so had few means of helping her. In despair, he asked her if she had thought of going to a church for help. A look of panic came over the woman before she answered,

“Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

And in those words we find a challenge, for during the life of Jesus, people who had hit rock bottom ran towards him rather than away from him. The whole background to this story is that the Pharisees were complaining that Jesus was sharing meals with undesirables. And of course that is how in our story the older brother saw the younger brother. He saw only the bad in his younger sibling and so felt no desire to welcome him back and on the basis of justice he was probably right but he had missed out on grace.

I get a feeling that today, the older brother is representative of mainstream attitudes in our society. We give up on people, freeze them in their worst moments and see them as lesser. The modern day High Priests of media preach a message of judgement without mercy. How utterly contrary to the message of Christ in which people are restored out of timeless love.

During my time in training, I spent some time in prison chaplaincy often with a minister who found Circuit work stressful and unrewarding. His work in bringing hope, giving time and showing value of prisoners seemed to be what kept him going. And whilst I do not share his unhappiness at Circuit life, I think I can see where he was coming from for behind those imposing bars where dwelt many who were whatever the wrongs they had done, themselves casualties, chaplaincy was so often a sign of grace through which the incarcerated men were able to begin discovering what it means to be valued, an alien experience for all too many.

Increasingly, I feel that our society has a choice of the way ahead. We can self righteously write people of when they foul up. It may seem like commonsense to many people even though it ultimately leads to ever increasing cycles of shame, broken lives, hatred and violence. Or we can dare to let ourselves be dominated by grace with all the counter cultural implications of such a choice.

Struggling for a title to this sermon, I came across the example of a minister who provided a sermon title of “Murderers, Criminals, Prostitutes Welcome.” And rather than have it put on a Notice Sheet as I do, he had it put on the church sign out in front of the church. In no time, the complaints began, telephone calls were made to members of the church council condemning the minister and demanding that the sign be pulled down. They had not understood grace.

But for me my mind when back to the days before the Iraq War when we were told that “Shock and Awe” would be unleashed. Overwhelming military power, we were told was the way to change things. Judge for yourselves the consequences of such a notion. This morning I just want to leave you with the suggestion that ultimately grace changes more than overwhelming power can ever do. For this gift of God transforms our lives and has the capacity to change the world beyond. And it is hardly for us to refuse for each of us has received of God more than we could ever deserve. For his grace, his love for us has changed everything even at cost to Christ

Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey.

I am sure he remembers. But do we?


This sermon was preached at a baptism service in Bideford on October 16th 2005. It was the first in a series of 3 sermons on 'Parables of Jesus.'

THANKS AND THANKS LUKE 17:11-19

Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves so thanks for nothing.

With that offering of a grace, cult figure Bart Simpson speaks for much of our contemporary culture. For we find so often today that our world is committed to endorsing our independence rather than our dependence on God, so much so that ‘Thankyou’ seems to be becoming an alien word.

A story is old of a woman at an airport departure lounge. Faced with a delay she sat down to read a book. After a while, a man sat down next to her. After a few minutes the woman reached down to the bag of cookies that she had bought and ate one. To her horrror, the man took one as well. And so it went on. Every time she took a cookie so did he. Not surprisingly she found herself getting ever more angry but whilst her face betrayed her rage, she never said a word. Eventually there was only one cookie left. Now to make things worse, the man beat her to it before with a smile breaking it in two, eating one half himself and giving the other half to the woman. At that moment, the man’s flight was called and so he set off, giving her one last smile. In return the woman produced her least friendly frown. With the cookie thief safely out of the way, the woman used the vacated space to stretch out - and at that moment she felt her hand brush against her unopened bag of cookies. She had been the cookie thief. The man had been generous. And now it was too late to thank him.


A missed opportunity to express gratitude can be seen in this morning’s Gospel Reading. Ten men were lepers. This meant not just that they suffered from a terrible disease which in its most extreme form as Hansen’s disease destroys the nerves in fingers and toes but that they also suffered from exclusion from society as those who were unclean. A community of need so great that distinction between Jews and Samaritans became important, led them to banded together to cry out to Jesus for help and pity. Not that this distinction is ignored by Luke. You see, the Samaritans were hardly popular amongst the Jewish community. After all, they were regarded as those who had ceased to be Jews in a meaningful way. They may have had their origins in the tribes of Israel. But after the Assyrians had overrun the North of Israel eight centuries before Christ, those citizens who were not killed or taken into permanent exile, found their cities in Samaria settled by foreigners of other faiths. Gradually the Jews and these foreigners intermingled in way that brought a racist reaction from some as well as an abhorrence that their religion had become compromised. In the years that followed, Jews and Samaritans snubbed each other and the Samaritans went so far as to set up a rival centre of worship to Jerusalem at Mount Gerazim. Even in the childhood of Jesus, the Samaritans used the remains of dead animals to desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem. And so perhaps the naming of one of the lepers in this border community as a Samaritan is not without significance.


And that significance comes out in the story of reactions to the healing of these lepers. Nine of them did precisely what Jesus told them to do. They went on their way to see the priest to get verification for their healing. They went off so that they could speedily rejoin society. But the Samaritan did something different. Having set off like the others, he turns around. Why? Because he sees in his healing the work of God and he knows that he needs to give thanks to God and praise God. For in a real sense the wholeness that was now his, is about discerning the presence of God within our lives, even in those things we consider ordinary, and that same wholeness means being grateful for the ways in which God blesses us. This is what it is to be truly human.


It is a bit like the story of the evangelist Harry Ironside who in a crowded restaurant bowed his head to pray before eating a meal. The other man at the table asked him if he had a headache. “No” replied Ironside. So the man asked him if something was wrong with his food. Ironside replied, “Ni, I was simply thanking God as I always do before I eat.” “Oh” replied the man in true Bart Simpson mode, “ you’re one of those are you? Well I want you to know that I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I don’t have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in.” Ironside’s immortal response was, “Yes, you’re just like my dog. That’s what he does too!”


At that is a matter for Harvest. In our society of self dependence, are we becoming blind to the gifts of God, instead seeing man as the giver of all things. I like a statement by William Sloan Coffin who in America has been a powerful voice against injustices. Yet reflecting on the changing situation of his declining health, he says;

I am less intentional than attentional. I am more attentive to family and friends and to nature’s beauty. Although still outraged by callous behaviour, particularly in high places, I feel more often serene, grateful for God’s gift of life. For the compassions that fail not, I find myself saying daily to my loving Maker, ‘I can no other answer than thanks and thanks and thanks.


And that is at the heart of Harvest Thanksgiving. Too often we marginalise God in our world. Yet at Harvest we are reminded that to be truly human we need to say Thanks and Thanks and Thanks. And then seeing how we are blessed by the generous gifts of God to be like the Samaritan to use the wholeness God gives us to work for justice and the fair use of the resources of our world.


But may we do so with appreciation. A man was once chased by a tiger. He ran and ran until he came to a sheer cliff. As the tiger neared him, he grabbed a rope hanging over the cliff and climbed out of the tiger’s reach. Looking up, he saw the tiger above just longing to eat him. Below he saw a drop of some 500 feet. What could he do. Just then he saw a rare sight, a bright red strawberry growing out on the side of the cliff. He reached out his hand grabbed the strawberry and popped it into his mouth. So good was it’s taste that he exclaimed, “That was the best strawberry I have ever tasted.”


In a dire predicament he appreciated something that was good. We may not be chased by tigers but we too need to appreciate the good gifts that we so often take for granted and whilst not minimising all that we owe to human graft, be grateful to the God who is at the heart of all the good things we enjoy, and who continues to bless us from the generous heart of Divine love.

This sermon was preached at Gammaton Harvest Festival on September 11th 2005

A Bush and a Cross Exodus 3:1-15; Matt 16:21-28

I like the story of President George W. Bush walking through an airport when he meets an elderly man with a long beard, wearing robes and sandals and carrying in his arms two tablets of stone. Excitedly, Bush runs up to the old man and asks;

"Sir, are you Moses?"

The man carries on walking so Bush chases after him, once more asking;

"Sir, are you Moses?"

Still the man carries on walking without responding to the question. But persistently, Bush carries on his pursuit, saying to the old man;

"I don’t know if you are Moses or not, but if you are Moses, you aren’t exactly friendly."

At this the old man stops and looks Bush in the eye before responding;

"Of course I am Moses, but you and I both know that the last time I talked to a Bush I spent 40 years wandering around in the wilderness."

Yes indeed. The calling of Moses through the Burning Bush was something that changed the life of Moses. Furthermore, the calling of Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and on a journey to become God’s people was peculiar in the extreme. For Moses was about as suited to such leadership as perhaps today, Simon Cowell would be suited to opening up a Charm School.

There is an old story of a church looking for a new pastor. The Selection Committee had spent hours one night looking for the right person and were ready to give up when they came upon this letter of introduction from a candidate;

"To the Ministerial Nominating Committee. It is my understanding that you are in the process of searching for a new pastor, and I would like to apply for the position. I wish I could say that I am a terrific preacher, but I can’t - actually, I stutter when I speak. I wish I could say that I have an impressive educational background, but I can’t - no college or seminary, just the school of “Hard knocks.” I wish I could say that I bring a wealth of experience to the job, but I can’t - I have never been a pastor before ( unless you count the flock of sheep I have been shepherding). I wish I could say I have wonderful pastoral skills, but I can’t - sometimes I lose my temper and have been known to get violent when upset. Once I even killed somebody, but gracious folks that you are, I am sure that you wouldn’t hold that against me. I know that churches these days want young ministers to attract young members, and I wish that I could say that I am young, but I can’t - actually, I am almost 80,,, but I still feel young. With all that which might go against me, why am I applying for your position? Simple. One afternoon recently, the voice of God spoke to me and said I had been chosen to lead. I admit, I was a bit reluctant at first, but… well here I am. O look forward to hearing from you and to leading you into an exciting new future. Yours sincerely,"

The Selection Committee looked at each other aghast. The chairperson asked, “Well what do you think?” the question seemed totally unnecessary. A stuttering, uneducated, inexperienced, arrogant, old, clearly neurotic ex - murderer as their pastor? The man must be crazy. The Chairperson eyed each of the committee before she added, “It is signed Moses.”

Certainly Moses was an unlikely choice to be God’s leader in the epic that was about to unfold. Everything about him was wrong. That is except for the fact that he was able to sense the presence of God in a way that few others would have. In a burning bush, he sensed the presence of God and dared to realise that he was on Holy ground. It’s a bit like Elizabeth Barrett Browning puts it in her poem, "Aurora Leigh";

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.

And that is the big question. Do we like Moses see God’s presence in our world or are we oblivious to the presence of God?

Now the important thing about God’s call to Moses through the burning bush, is that it is a call for Moses to be involved in God’s work of liberation. At this time, the Hebrews are like many a minority community in the world since, the victims of oppression. They are treated as slaves, as lesser people by the power that is Egypt. Their contribution to that society just generations before is as it were airbrushed out of history. Their situation had about it a hopelessness that has its parallels in the position of non European races in South Africa not so long ago. Like them they had little reason to expect things to change. But in the story of Moses, we see the God who is on the side of the victims of injustice and who demands a change of perspective and a change of situation. We see in this story no quiet acceptance of injustice but instead a refrain that breaks forth time and time again with ever increasing crescendo;

Let my people go!

And in the story of Moses and the Exodus, we see the giant of oppressive power brought to its very knees. And it is no accident that where people are deprived a fair deal in life, this story is recalled as a message of hope. This is particularly true in the context of South America where the extremes of poverty and ostentatious wealth live in close proximity with the position of the powerful maintained by death squads and misuse of state power. For to the communities marked by liberation theology, this story says that God is to be found as present in the struggle against injustice and cruelty and part of our path of discipleship is to cooperate with this Divine work of liberation.

And yet, I cannot help but be uncomfortable with some of the way in which the story later pans out. We later hear of plagues which wreak havoc, of the horror of the deaths of the first born sons of the Egyptians and the drowning of many of their conscript army. I find myself shuddering at the thought that God’s liberation may be for one people and not for another. I struggle with the seeming indifference of the Biblical accounts to the victims who happen to be Egyptian. And perhaps my reason is not just that it seems unfair for collective guilt to have been imposed in the past. For I think part of my unease is contemporary. I am uncomfortable when collective guilt is directed against a people on mass. After all did we not see something of that in the video of the London suicide bomber who was prepared to condemn a whole people for what he saw as wrongs perpetuated in our names even if we were opposed to those actions.

Too often in history, it seems to me that wrongs have been righted by means that have produced their own wrongs. And circles of ever increasing hatred and violence are the result. Yes, the Scriptures commit us to opposing injustice but surely we are not called to that damnable lie that ends necessarily justify the means.

And it is here that our Gospel Reading fits in. Peter has not long before acclaimed Jesus as “Messiah.” He has seen Jesus as the one who will bring victory to his people over those who have imposed on it the long night of wrong. But he has failed to understand the ways of God in bringing the triumph of right. He still sees a victory won by the killing and destruction of enemies. No wonder he is unable to understand the Kingship of Jesus where the weapons of power will be love and forgiveness. No wonder he is unable to understand a Jesus whose victory will be seen not in killing others but in being killed himself. But surprising as it is to him, his whole understanding of God has to undergo a mega transformation.

Soon he will learn the power of self giving. Soon he will see in the cross the way of God bringing salvation to the world. For in the Cross is God in Christ offering a sufficient sacrifice that draws us away from demanding further shedding of blood. The need for vengeance is gone as is the need to punish ourselves as so many do. The Cross proclaims with power that Christ has taken on himself all the wrongs and sufferings of the world and no longs to share his risen life with each and every one of us. For to him, we are all special and valuable.

So this morning we meet the risen Christ afresh at the Table. And then we go into the world. And as we go into the world, we go seeking the sensitivity to the presence of Christ that was Moses’, the willingness to serve God despite our limitations which took some time for Moses to reach, the passion to oppose injustice and all that dehumanises which God revealed to be the Divine way to Moses, and finally with the appreciation that in all things we need to be guided by the way of Jesus who values and loves even those whose humanity we too often deny.


This sermon was preached in Bideford on September 4th at a Communion Service

WHO AM I? Matthew 16: 13-20

Who do you say I am?

A simple question asked by Jesus to his closest followers.
They have just told him what others have been saying. Their answers have linked Jesus with the prophetic tradition be it through John the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah. Each of these three men has been used by God at some point in the past, in John’s case actually overlapping with Jesus.

Others might have produced very different answers. To some, Jesus was the healer who had given them restored health. To others, Jesus was the teacher who had given them value. Whilst to others, Jesus was man who mixed with the wrong type of people, a man whose teaching was a blasphemy which was disobedient to the Law, a man who threatened the religious traditions of Israel. Meanwhile, for some Jesus was someone to be mocked, to have a crown of thorns placed on his head, a sort of King but without dignity.

And since then, this question has still not gone away.

Who do you say that I am?

For Jesus goes on being seen in so many different ways. We have the indecisive Jesus of Zefferelli’s Last Temptation and in contrast Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar in which Jesus is interpreted through the lens of celebrity. Meanwhile, traditionalists, revolutionaries, feminists and believers in patriarchy all seem to construct Jesus in a way that suits them.

And yet, this Jesus hold a great fascination for so many people. A piece of prose entitled One Solitary Life that dates back to the 1920s perhaps explains why;

He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in an obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty
He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born
He did none of the things associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through a mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth
When he has dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind’s progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the Parliaments that have ever sat
All the Kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life.

In those words we see a glimpse into how unique Jesus is. No wonder, his followers began to see him as Lord! No wonder, as the early Church reflected, they saw in Jesus the full measure of Divinity. This of course led to lengthy debate within the Church. They saw Jesus as a man but they also saw him as Divine. How could this be understood. The key man in the process of such understanding was the Emperor Constantine who came to power in Rome in the year 312. He had had a vision of the cross just the night before a crucial battle. Many would question how genuine his conversion was. After all whilst he became a patron to the Christian Church, he also worshipped in the temples of the Sun God whom his ancestors had worshipped. However, he did get the Christian leaders of his time to gather together in order to resolve the question as to who Jesus was. And it was at Nicaea in one of those Councils that it was resolved that whilst Jesus was fully human, he was also Divine, being ‘One Being’ with God the Father. So we find the significance of Jesus enhanced. This is more than another of the heroes of the past. This is the one in whom we meet with God. It is as David Jenkins, when Bishop of Durham, said;

God is. He is as he is in Jesus. Therefore, there is hope.

You get the picture? If you want to know what God is like, all you have to do is look at Jesus. In this man is God. Through him, God has taken on flesh and come into our world. As we look at his birth, we can sing;

He came down to earth from Heaven.

In his death, we see God suffering for the world. And in his resurrection, we see affirmed God’s decisive YES to all that Jesus, said and did in his ministry.

But whilst Constantine was right about Jesus’ significance as being ‘One Being’ with God, he was equally wrong as to the character of Jesus. His understanding of God was about power. He believed that God had granted him victory in battle with his rivals for supremacy in Rome. And so, he linked his power to God. And in the name of his power, he killed his wife in a boiling bath, executed his son and generally linked his often cruel use of power to his being God’s man. And sadly, others have down through the years followed in his footsteps using God as a defence for cruelty and domination over others in a way that is a sick perversion of all that Jesus was about.

Indeed, Jesus cannot be put into our neat boxes. Nowhere is that more clear that in Peter’s answer to the Who do you say I am question. His answer You are the Christ, the Son of the living God can be seen as a statement of faith, faith on which the church is to be based. But that is not the whole picture. For whilst Peter’s statement is absolutely true, the problem lies with what he and others understood the Christ, the anointed one of God would do. You see, the expectation was that the Christ, the Messiah, would be one who would be victorious over Israel’s enemies. Years of wrong would be ended and all would be well. And in this understanding, there is no room for a Christ to be tortured or to die the vile death of a criminal. Soon Peter will be resisting Jesus when Jesus talks of his future sufferings. For Jesus turns upside down the traditional expectations of the Christ that Peter shared.

As we face the Who do you think I am question, we face a question that is about more than titles. We face the very way of Jesus. For Jesus is about a Kingship that is like no other Kingship. Unlike Constantine, the Kingship of Jesus is not about domination and coercion. Instead it is rooted in the giving of value to all, it is rooted in a vision that all can be connected to God, it is rooted in a vision of peace and that peace with justice. It has values of respect, forgiveness and graciousness. And whilst as the humiliation of a Cross reminds us that it comes with no guarantees of success, it is this Jesus who has changed the world through love rather than might.

On Saturday, many of us will gather in Torrington, to witness the burning of that great model of HMS Victory that has been erected over the past months. We may spare a thought to how that defeat of Napoleon in 1805 was a major blow to his plans to dominate Europe, plans that came so close to fulfilment. But Napoleon knew that great as his military power was, it was eclipsed by a greater albeit different power. Hear his words;

"I know man and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love: and at this hour millions of people would die for him."

The question asked to Peter - Who do you say that I am? - has resounded down the years and continues to challenge us today. Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed by the Nazis sixty years ago, we can see in Jesus, the God Man who encompasses both human and Divine. But we can never capture this Jesus into our neat modes of thinking. Instead, the proper response is to follow him on a journey in which we will be surprised and challenged time and again. And ultimately it is only in following Jesus that we can come to know him. And it is only in knowing him, that we can truly know ourselves.

This sermon was preached at a Baptismal Service at Bideford on August 21st. It wa written with the rock band TheWho's song of the same title ringing in my ears.

WHEN WALLS COME DOWN Matthew 15:21-28

Reading today’s Gospel reading is a somewhat uncomfortable experience. Our preconceptions of Jesus seem to come crashing down. Even if we have been a little desensitivised by the antics and language of the contestants in Big Brother, I think that we cannot be other than uncomfortable to find Jesus likening Gentiles which after all includes as far as I know all of us, with the description ‘dogs.’

So what is going on here? Well, at a point when Jesus is tired and shaken by the news of the killing of John the Baptist, along comes a somewhat persistent Canaanite woman, making demands of him. Here is a woman who has a demon possessed daughter and she, as a loving mother, is going to stop at nothing to get her daughter better. And in that objective, she sees Jesus as the one who can meet her needs.

Perhaps at this stage, it is worth looking at what being a Canaanite woman entails. This woman who lived around the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, would have been at least nominally a descendant of those with whom the Hebrews had been involved in combat against going back to the events of the Exodus well over a thousand years earlier. I say nominally, because the territory from which she came, was territory that had been fought over by a range of peoples since. Philistines and Hittites were amongst those who had settled in this land, and the one thing they had in common was a deep enmity with the Jews. It was from these territories that just a couple of centuries before the time of Jesus, a King had invaded Jerusalem and by use of torture and persecution, sought to destroy the entirety of Jewish religious tradition, leaving a legacy of martyrs who were still very much remembered at the time of Jesus. So, you can see that this encounter is hardly likely to be promising.

Anyhow, the encounter begins with an almighty surprise. This outsider makes her approach, addressing Jesus as “Lord, Son of David.” This is remarkable on two fronts. Firstly, there is the bravery of this action. In the patriarchal society, it was not acceptable for a woman, especially an unrelated woman, to invade a man’s space in search of a favour. This was after all a society in which the system served to prevent women from acquiring an assertive role in public life. Yet here, in her desperation, this Canaanite woman dares to challenge these structures of what today would be described as sexism.

Yet, perhaps more remarkable is the great insight she shows in the titles with which she addresses Jesus. At a time when those on the inside including his closest disciples fail to recognise it, this outsider woman is able to see Jesus as “Lord” and as “Son of David.”

Commentators seem to hold a range of opinions as to her motives in addressing Jesus with these titles. Perhaps their use enables her to address him in an acceptable way as a subject to a King. Perhaps, it is done in this way out of her desperation to bring help to her daughter. But, it seems that out of her desperation she has possibly inadvertently stumbled on the true significance of Jesus. The outsider has come to understand what passed the insiders by. Increasingly, I think that this is important. Too often, we are closed to the insights of those who are other than us. Yet often wisdom comes from surprising places. After all some of the most valuable insights on peace and justice of which I am aware come from Mahatma Gandhi who followed the path of Hinduism, some of the most important insights on environmentalism come from campaigners outside the Christian community and 20 years ago when millions faced starvation in Africa, the most vocal voice to feed the world was an Irishman who had long been disenchanted with the Church with which he had grown up and who was prone to expressing himself in a somewhat non ecclesiastical manner. None of this denies that many times God works through Christian people but I would like to suggest this morning that this Scripture reminds us part of good Christian discipleship is about listening to the insights of those who in many ways might be seen as other than we are.

But now comes the problem. And horror of horrors the problem seems to be Jesus. His first reaction is not to respond. If he is a King, she is no subject and he is in no way obligated to respond to her. Indeed his reaction is to tell his disciples who are vexed at the disturbance, that he was only sent to “the lost sheep of Israel.” Hearing this is uncomfortable to us although it probably would not have shocked some of his followers who saw God in a tribal manner. But our problem soon becomes bigger when as the woman begs still more, by now on her knees, we find Jesus to telling her;

"It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs."

Dogs! That’s gentiles like you and me. Surely not! So in a sense we can only be glad that the Canaanite woman refuses to be put off. Back she comes with the rejoinder;

“Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

And at that demonstration of faith and at that reminder that good things inevitably spread, Jesus changes tact, acknowledges her faith and gives her the healing of her daughter which this woman has craved.

But what has happened here. One view is that Jesus has used this exchange to lead this woman to discover her true value for herself and also to teach the disciples that the Gospel stretched outside of the comfortable box named Israel. Others see this encounter as showing Jesus developing his own understanding of his ministry through this encounter. Remember that Jesus is fully Human as well as fully Divine. And humanity is something that involves developing. Remember those words in Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus has questioned the leaders in the temple;

"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature."

Perhaps this story hints that in his ministry, as one who is fully human, Jesus is still wrestling with his ministry and growing in wisdom. Indeed, if Jesus is changing in the encounter, might that not be a good example to all of us to follow, that we might not put certainty above compassion. For in the powerful words of the Jewish Rabbi, Sheila Peltz after her visit to Auschwitz;

“As I stood before the gates I realised that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place”

The more I look at what I find to be this difficult encounter, the more convinced I am that it represents a powerful pointer to a God whose love is inclusive. The more convinced I am that it is a story that challenges the walls we build to divide us between an Us and a Them. It reads to me as a story that challenges us with a vision of God valuing even those whom we find it hardest to value. And as such, it draws us into God’s work of tearing down the man made walls that divide and exclude.

On Christmas Day 1989, the Jewish conductor Leonard Bernstein conducted the ‘Berlin Celebration Concerts’ on both sides of the Berlin Wall which was in the process of being dismantled. His orchestra contained musicians from both Germanys as well as the four allied powers who had occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War. A wall had given way to a new unity. For the occasion Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” was renamed “Ode to Freedom.” Walls had come down and most miraculous of all the miracles of that Christmas was that Bernstein was now being feted in that land in which he would have been murdered simply for existing less than half a century earlier.

This morning, I have both a challenge and an invitation. The challenge is to ask what are the walls that exist today in our world, our community and indeed within the Church that lead to some people being treated as lesser. And having recognised them, what are we going to do to help dismantle those walls?

The invitation is that recognising that God is for all, we are invited to the acceptance that is found at our Lord’s Table. For this is the appointed place where God touches us no matter what our individual story might be for as the story of the Canaanite woman reminds us, God wants to touch us even when we may be seen as distant from God .

AMEN

This sermon was preached at a Communion service in Bideford on August 14th

BIBLICAL BIG BROTHER Genesis 37: 12-28

The book of Genesis contains a colourful collection of stories about the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all emerge as fascinating yet flawed characters. None of them, however, grabs the imagination quite as powerfully as the story of Joseph. Even if the story were not immortalised by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat,’ his is a story that catches our imagination.

This evening’s reading shows us great flaws in all the characters. Jacob, raised in what has long been a dysfunctional family, is an absolutely terrible father. Not only does he prize one son above the others, just as he himself was prized above his twin Esau by his mother, but he makes it obvious to the other sons. He keeps Joseph close to himself away from the grime of hard work and spoils him both emotionally and materially as shown through the special robe he makes him.

Not surprisingly, his actions leave sharp divisions among his sons.

As for Joseph, he seems to have behaved as a spoilt brat. From the reading we have heard this evening, we find that Joseph behaves like what at school we used to describe as a sneak or perhaps what some today would call a ‘grass.’ He can’t resist bringing his father bad reports about his brothers. But more than that! Joseph seems from the beginning to have experienced remarkable dreams, dreams which later with his interpretations transform his condition in a positive way. However, as a young man, he exhibits the level of sensitivity of a Big Brother housemate. He just cannot resist telling his brothers about the dreams which imply that he is going to be on a much higher plain than them. In Joseph, the worst of adolescent precociousness is revealed. One cannot help feeling that the young man could do with a trip to a good Finishing School to learn a few social graces.

But then there is the brothers. They were in the first case the victims of injustice. Their father’s preference for brother Joseph over them, was clear for all to see. It is not difficult to appreciate the pain they must have felt. But in their rebellion against injustice, they actually accelerated a cycle of injustice. One injustice was confronted by creating another one. You see, ultimately, Joseph was not the prime architect of the situation but such was their anger at the favouritism bestowed on him by their shared father, that most of them were prepared to kill him. Does this not speak into our world today where cycles of violence go on with ever increasing circles?
But of course, not all the brothers wish to do something as dramatic as fratricide. Reuben tries to defuse the situation. His idea is to throw Joseph into a cistern so that he might later rescue him. But when the idea of selling Joseph into slavery with the passing Midianite traders arises, enabling a hated brother to be got rid of and a handy profit made, he is not on the scene and ultimately does nothing to right the wrong. In a sense, Reuben symbolises the times when we fail to make a stand against what is wrong, preferring instead to remain in our comfort zone. In a sense his paralysing compromise with evil reminds me of the words of James Russell Lowell;

“They are slaves who fear to be in the right with two or three.”

And I suspect that there is a bit of the Reuben in most of us.

But what does this ancient story have to say to us today? In a strange way, I think this story is uncomfortably close to modern life.

Parenting is as hard today as it was then as I for one know. We, too, can be somewhat overindulgent just like Jacob. For the sake of ease, we can throw things at our young rather than our time. Certainly the challenging child needs time and patience with even handedness between competing children. Perhaps like Jacob, we can sense special ness in one of our children and elevate that one often unconsciously above the others, leaving behind pressures on the chosen and resentment on the part of the siblings. We need to be contra Jacob, in seeking the value of all our children including those whose gifts are less apparent.

But there is also something here about how we confront injustice. The brothers see injustice as being most effectively confronted by violence. I guess that this is often the dominant viewpoint in our world today. The problem is that when violence is seen as the answer, all too often we see new injustices emerging. Is not our history littered with examples of those who in their fight against injustice have ultimately brought about new injustices? So often the one time victim creates their own victims. This does not mean that we should be unconcerned about injustice. Indeed, the future for our world is grim if we do not look to correct injustice for injustice is often the first step in the circle of violence. However, it does mean that we need to be discriminating in how we confront the injustices around us so that the cycle be brought to an end. Increasingly, I think that the two outstanding figures of the twentieth century were Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who stood against injustice in a way that refused to be contaminated by hatred and violence.

And this finds its roots in a belief that all people have value. You know, in our world we are so aware that we unthinkingly dispose of our planet’s precious resources. It is a scandal which needs to be confronted. Yet worse still is the fact that we are prepared to throw away people. Some people especially far off or other than, are too easily regarded as of less significance than we ourselves and those we see as being like us. Perhaps one of our needs is to discover afresh a sense of shared value as children of God.

And our being children of God, serves to remind us just as God was present in this story, so too is God present in our lives. God may not be jumping in and intervening in a way that we recognise but God cannot be dismissed as a mere spectator. In times of joy and times of suffering God is present weaving God’s future. In the story of Joseph, the darkness of our reading is not the end for through these happenings Joseph matures and is able to be God’s man in addressing the calamity of famine. Ultimately all the participants learn valuable lessons.

For us, God is involved in our lives and whilst nothing in tonight’s scripture readings promise us lives of ease and comfort, God is the reference point by whom we should live our lives. For stories such as these are in the Scriptures as important guideposts to help us in the decisions we face in our journey of life.

This sermon was preached at Northam on Sunday August 7th