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.'