The context of this service is an ecumenical Good Friday service in the Chapel of a large teaching hospital.
The texts are John 18 - 19
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People
It was the people in this story that struck me as I read the text. All the different kinds of people – a whole cast of characters – with a wide range of motivations.
First we have the groups of people:
The disciples, Jesus’ closest twelve.
The Roman soldiers.
The courts of the High Priest and Pilate.
The common people lurking in the High Priest’s courtyard.
The spectators on Good Friday come for a good execution and a bit of entertainment just as people have done from time immemorial.
And then we have the individuals, too many to list now:
Jesus, of course.
Judas, the disciple and the betrayer.
Peter, who is disciple, defender AND betrayer.
And Annas (the High Priest) and Pilate. So-called “leaders” who don’t seem to be doing a lot of leading.
I don’t know about you, but as a child I was taught to read all of these events as things that happened because Jesus needed to die for my sins. So, as I sat in church on Good Friday hearing these stories, there was a kind of inevitability about it all. In the same way that I knew how the story about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs turned out, I knew the story about Jesus praying in Gethsemane, judged by the High Priest and by Pilate and marched off to crucifixion.
It never really occurred to me that, in some very real sense, these events occurred because a number of people – both groups and individuals – made free choices. Free choices which led human beings to execute the Son of God. And as today’s reading reminded us, Jesus didn’t call down legions of angels to fight the legions of Caesar. He left the events of human history to the consequences of human actions.
Jesus died because an angry mob was looking for a scapegoat.
He died because the rulers of the subjugated people were frightened and thought it was better for one man to die than for the nation to suffer.
He died because the official representative of the Empire didn’t have the courage to do what he knew in his heart was right.
Yes, there is a sense in which all of this had to happen. Yes, he died for our sins, but he also died because of our sins.
The choices made by individuals over 2000 years ago killed Jesus. But I don’t think we’re off the hook. Unless any one of us can truly say that we would never be so frightened as to permit our government use individuals as scapegoats. That we would never give up one of our group in order that the group might survive. That we would never sacrifice another person on the altar of expediency. The human choices that were made by those individuals 2000 years ago are choices that we ourselves are very capable of making. And those choices killed Jesus.
Death
The other thing that struck me in reading this text was that it is a story about the death of a human being.
Of course, the Christian tradition affirms that Jesus was the Son of God, true God and true human being. But he was a human being. And I think that, historically, Christians have tended to forget this.
Often we tend to see Jesus as a kind of a Superhero, who shared all the qualities of God but was only masquerading as a human being. But the Passion story is also a story about a very human Jesus: a man who made sure that his mother would be looked after, a man who was thirsty, a man who looked death in the face and gave up his spirit.
And this particular human death reminded me of the deaths of other human beings that sadly happen here in the hospital, despite all the prayers and wishes of the people who love these individuals. Despite all the best efforts, choices and work by the medical staff here. Deaths that sadly sometimes happen despite all our best choices. And just like Jesus had all these different people surrounding him at the time of his death, so too do families often gather at the death of a loved one.
And that reminded me once again that, as a Christian, I believe in an incarnate God: a God who took on human form. Christianity does not tell us that we humans are a lower form of life who have to work very hard to rise up to the level of the divine. Christianity tells us that, by divine grace, God became embodied like us. Christianity tells us that, if we have seen Jesus, we have seen not only the invisible God but we have also seen who we are truly created to be as heirs to the New Creation.
Although the Christian church tends to talk about the Incarnation at Christmas, I think that here in this hospital we need the incarnate God – true God and true human – even more on Good Friday. When we see individuals facing times of pain, illness, trauma and death it’s good remind ourselves that God had a body. As human beings, we all need the Jesus who understood physical human suffering and who did not evade it.
This – embodied, suffering Christ – is The One who we need to be by our side when we are gravely ill and suffering. The embodied Christ is the One we need when we begin to wonder if God is so far off that God has no idea what we’re going through. On Good Friday, we are reminded that God became incarnate not just as a little baby but also as the Suffering Servant.
Conclusion
Today is Good Friday. I regret if you think I’ve spoken too much about death. Because, of course, we know the end of “The Jesus Story” and it’s not ultimately about death. The story of Jesus’ mission is ultimately about resurrection, about New Birth and New Life and a new Reign of God.
And Easter, of course, is the source of the sure and certain hope that we have in Christ.
But I do want to urge all of us not to jump too far ahead. As a devotion, let’s linger a bit at the events of Good Friday.
Let’s remember that human choices – the sort that we are all capable of making – put Jesus on the cross. And let’s remember to that Jesus also freely chose his suffering. A suffering which somehow unites God and humanity in a new and lasting coventental relationship. But a suffering that Jesus chose because of his deep and abiding faith that, ultimately in the final analysis, death does not dwell where God dwells.
This is the ultimate source of the Christian hope. This is the hope of Good Friday that points us toward the hope of Easter Sunday.
As we commemorate the death of Jesus this afternoon, I pray that the hope that we have in the embodied, crucified and resurrected Jesus will be with us all. Amen
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
Friday, April 22, 2011
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Sunday 1 March 2009 - New Birth, Learning, Repentance
This sermon is based on Mark 1:9-15
Introduction
There is an interesting phenomenon happening on the internet these days. A number of websites have sprung up where people can make confessions anonymously.
As you can imagine, many of these confessions are not suitable for repetition in church and some of them are downright shocking or, if not shocking, then upsetting.
Some are poignant: ‘I've loved her since she first told me that true love didn't exist.’
And a number go straight to the darker side of the human condition.
...‘I drive drunk at least once a week; I’m getting very good at it.’
...‘I know someone who has been around forever, is well liked by everyone and who is not who they say they are.’
...‘I get jealous when attention is paid to other people but I do my best to repress it.’
I only just learned about these websites about a fortnight ago. But if you do an internet search for ‘anonymous confessions’, you will have quite a selection of websites to choose from. There is even a website called ‘Anonymous Australian Confessions’. (It makes me wonder why Australians need a special kind of confessing?)
But what each of these websites claims to provide is a place to safely get things off your chest. Some of these websites even give assurances that they have disabled the usual ways that anonymous internet comments can be identified.
Confessing our sins and our misdeeds seems to be an act that is rooted deep in the human psyche. Most of us seem to need to get our misdeeds off our chest in some form or another and, if we can’t actually confess to the person whom we have wronged, then an anonymous confession on the internet is the next best thing.
Or is it? Perhaps that’s the question.
What I found interesting in reading some of these confessions is that there was often no desire expressed to stop the activity being confessed. And, fairly frequently, a number of people expressed the idea that they wish they could stop but they can’t so there really isn’t any point in trying.
You won’t be surprised, either, that a number of people didn’t seem to be ‘confessing’ as much as they appeared to be ‘boasting’. Perhaps they had a small idea in the back of their mind that what they were up to was a behaviour that should be stopped, but somehow they seemed to be seeking an anonymous kind of approval or admiration on the internet.
Lent is the time for self-examination and repentance and – intentionally or unintentionally – today’s Gospel reading sets out a useful example for what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Today’s Gospel reading contains three ‘movements’, if you will:
1) New Birth in the form of baptism;
2) challenge and learning in the form of the trial in the desert; and 3) Jesus’ call to repentance.
New Birth / Baptism
In the first cameo in today’s Gospel, Jesus is baptised.
Baptism is the sacrament of what John Wesley called the New Birth. The commonly-used phrase ‘born again’ probably arose from John Wesley’s use of the term ‘New Birth’ which is closely related to his concept of ‘New Creation’.
The process of salvation for individuals is expressed in the term ‘New Birth’. And the process of salvation for all of creation is expressed in the term ‘New Creation’
To be born again is to stop seeing reality from the commonly-accepted perspective of our society and culture, but rather to see reality from God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, driving drunk isn’t so much a character flaw or quirk as it is a sin that puts his beloved creatures in danger – both the drunk driver and others who he or she might hurt. From God’s perspective, mismanaging a company or an economy from wreckless greed and putting thousands of people out of work isn’t simply bad luck and ‘the way things are’ – it is also a manifestation of sin.
To be born again is to recognise both our individual sins and our sinful condition and our absolute need for God’s grace. The difference between the person who is born again and some of the anonymous confessors is that the person who is born again recognises that their sinful actions are, indeed, sinful. And it is not just individuals like drunk drivers who need New Birth. It is also systems that wrecklessly create unemployment or systematic Third-World poverty that need the salvation of God’s New Creation.
Learning and Trials
But as anyone who has tried to kick a bad habit is only too aware, understanding that our actions are wrong or sinful doesn’t necessarily make it easy to stop the harmful actions. Just because we are ‘born again’ doesn’t mean that we become automatically holy and that we don’t need to grow and learn.
We all know that it’s not easy for an alcoholic to stop drinking And neither is it easy for us as a society to give up some of our economic addictions – which is why we are now going through recession.
In order to get rid of our bad habits and our sins, we often need to go through a painful process of learning.
To continue with the analogy of alcoholism….Many alcoholics have found that the process of ‘learning’ that Alcoholics Anonymous provides is one that ultimately works.
It is by no means an easy process. It requires members to examine themselves, their motives, their habits and it also requires them to make amends to people whom they have wronged. It urges individuals to call upon a ‘Higher Power’ (God) in times of trial but, importantly, it also provides a human being to rely upon. The member’s sponsor is there for them any time of the day or night and is there for them even when they fall off the wagon.
I sometimes think that this system of learning and support probably works a lot better than the Church where I think that people often feel that church is the last place they can admit their weaknesses to others and find support to learn and grow.
In every Christian life there will be times of trial and testing. Such times can be times of learning for individuals and they can also be occasions for support from Christian friends and from the Church family.
Like the sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous, the church is at its best when we stand by those who are struggling. We won’t name anyone’s sins as good things, but we won’t abandon each other when we fall off the wagon.
Because each of us knows that, when it comes to sin, we will all fall off the wagon and need the grace of God, especially as it is demonstrated by our brothers and sisters in Christ. And each of us knows that, because of the cross of Christ, God extends this grace to us and gives us strength in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance
The ultimate goal of our learning, of course, is a change in our behaviour. What John Wesley called a growth in holiness.
Repentance is not just being sorry for our sins. Repentance includes change. The kind of change that needs the power of the Holy Spirit; the kind of change that needs the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ. The kind of change that means that rather than turn our backs towards God, we have our faces turned towards God.
‘Repentance’, of course, is what the season of Lent is all about. And repentance is also this morning’s Good News.
The Good News is that every person is given the opportunity to repent and be born again. The Good News is that, in the power of the Holy Spirit and with the support of our brothers and sisters, we can grow in holiness and the likeness of Christ. The Good News is that when we inevitably make mistakes and fall off the wagon that these mistakes can be used as learning experiences. The Good News is that God is our sponsor and is always patient, always forgiving, always ready to give us a second chance.
As we come to the Lord’s Table, I pray that we may all be aware of the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness for us. Amen
Introduction
There is an interesting phenomenon happening on the internet these days. A number of websites have sprung up where people can make confessions anonymously.
As you can imagine, many of these confessions are not suitable for repetition in church and some of them are downright shocking or, if not shocking, then upsetting.
Some are poignant: ‘I've loved her since she first told me that true love didn't exist.’
And a number go straight to the darker side of the human condition.
...‘I drive drunk at least once a week; I’m getting very good at it.’
...‘I know someone who has been around forever, is well liked by everyone and who is not who they say they are.’
...‘I get jealous when attention is paid to other people but I do my best to repress it.’
I only just learned about these websites about a fortnight ago. But if you do an internet search for ‘anonymous confessions’, you will have quite a selection of websites to choose from. There is even a website called ‘Anonymous Australian Confessions’. (It makes me wonder why Australians need a special kind of confessing?)
But what each of these websites claims to provide is a place to safely get things off your chest. Some of these websites even give assurances that they have disabled the usual ways that anonymous internet comments can be identified.
Confessing our sins and our misdeeds seems to be an act that is rooted deep in the human psyche. Most of us seem to need to get our misdeeds off our chest in some form or another and, if we can’t actually confess to the person whom we have wronged, then an anonymous confession on the internet is the next best thing.
Or is it? Perhaps that’s the question.
What I found interesting in reading some of these confessions is that there was often no desire expressed to stop the activity being confessed. And, fairly frequently, a number of people expressed the idea that they wish they could stop but they can’t so there really isn’t any point in trying.
You won’t be surprised, either, that a number of people didn’t seem to be ‘confessing’ as much as they appeared to be ‘boasting’. Perhaps they had a small idea in the back of their mind that what they were up to was a behaviour that should be stopped, but somehow they seemed to be seeking an anonymous kind of approval or admiration on the internet.
Lent is the time for self-examination and repentance and – intentionally or unintentionally – today’s Gospel reading sets out a useful example for what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Today’s Gospel reading contains three ‘movements’, if you will:
1) New Birth in the form of baptism;
2) challenge and learning in the form of the trial in the desert; and 3) Jesus’ call to repentance.
New Birth / Baptism
In the first cameo in today’s Gospel, Jesus is baptised.
Baptism is the sacrament of what John Wesley called the New Birth. The commonly-used phrase ‘born again’ probably arose from John Wesley’s use of the term ‘New Birth’ which is closely related to his concept of ‘New Creation’.
The process of salvation for individuals is expressed in the term ‘New Birth’. And the process of salvation for all of creation is expressed in the term ‘New Creation’
To be born again is to stop seeing reality from the commonly-accepted perspective of our society and culture, but rather to see reality from God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, driving drunk isn’t so much a character flaw or quirk as it is a sin that puts his beloved creatures in danger – both the drunk driver and others who he or she might hurt. From God’s perspective, mismanaging a company or an economy from wreckless greed and putting thousands of people out of work isn’t simply bad luck and ‘the way things are’ – it is also a manifestation of sin.
To be born again is to recognise both our individual sins and our sinful condition and our absolute need for God’s grace. The difference between the person who is born again and some of the anonymous confessors is that the person who is born again recognises that their sinful actions are, indeed, sinful. And it is not just individuals like drunk drivers who need New Birth. It is also systems that wrecklessly create unemployment or systematic Third-World poverty that need the salvation of God’s New Creation.
Learning and Trials
But as anyone who has tried to kick a bad habit is only too aware, understanding that our actions are wrong or sinful doesn’t necessarily make it easy to stop the harmful actions. Just because we are ‘born again’ doesn’t mean that we become automatically holy and that we don’t need to grow and learn.
We all know that it’s not easy for an alcoholic to stop drinking And neither is it easy for us as a society to give up some of our economic addictions – which is why we are now going through recession.
In order to get rid of our bad habits and our sins, we often need to go through a painful process of learning.
To continue with the analogy of alcoholism….Many alcoholics have found that the process of ‘learning’ that Alcoholics Anonymous provides is one that ultimately works.
It is by no means an easy process. It requires members to examine themselves, their motives, their habits and it also requires them to make amends to people whom they have wronged. It urges individuals to call upon a ‘Higher Power’ (God) in times of trial but, importantly, it also provides a human being to rely upon. The member’s sponsor is there for them any time of the day or night and is there for them even when they fall off the wagon.
I sometimes think that this system of learning and support probably works a lot better than the Church where I think that people often feel that church is the last place they can admit their weaknesses to others and find support to learn and grow.
In every Christian life there will be times of trial and testing. Such times can be times of learning for individuals and they can also be occasions for support from Christian friends and from the Church family.
Like the sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous, the church is at its best when we stand by those who are struggling. We won’t name anyone’s sins as good things, but we won’t abandon each other when we fall off the wagon.
Because each of us knows that, when it comes to sin, we will all fall off the wagon and need the grace of God, especially as it is demonstrated by our brothers and sisters in Christ. And each of us knows that, because of the cross of Christ, God extends this grace to us and gives us strength in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance
The ultimate goal of our learning, of course, is a change in our behaviour. What John Wesley called a growth in holiness.
Repentance is not just being sorry for our sins. Repentance includes change. The kind of change that needs the power of the Holy Spirit; the kind of change that needs the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ. The kind of change that means that rather than turn our backs towards God, we have our faces turned towards God.
‘Repentance’, of course, is what the season of Lent is all about. And repentance is also this morning’s Good News.
The Good News is that every person is given the opportunity to repent and be born again. The Good News is that, in the power of the Holy Spirit and with the support of our brothers and sisters, we can grow in holiness and the likeness of Christ. The Good News is that when we inevitably make mistakes and fall off the wagon that these mistakes can be used as learning experiences. The Good News is that God is our sponsor and is always patient, always forgiving, always ready to give us a second chance.
As we come to the Lord’s Table, I pray that we may all be aware of the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness for us. Amen
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Sunday 9 December 2007 - Repent and Say Wow!
This is a sermon for Advent 2 based on Isaiah 11:1-10 and Matthew 3:1-12
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Introduction
In this second Sunday of Advent, we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ We also hear the voice of Isaiah giving us his vision of the Kingdom of heaven: It’s a place where the wolf and the lamb live together and where God’s judgement results in equity for the poor and meek.
John the Baptist is not a cuddly character and his message this morning is not a cuddly message. The ordinary people of Jerusalem and Judea come to him to repent and to be baptised, but when the Pharisees and Sadducees come for baptism, he proclaims: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance!’ For those of us who suspect that we may have some Pharisaicial tendencies ourselves, this can make for uncomfortable reading.
The American Christian author Frederick Buechner has this to say about the process of repentance: “To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'"1
This morning, I want to think about this idea of looking at the future and saying ‘Wow!’ Because I don’t think that repentance is so much about focussing on what it is that we shouldn’t be doing as it is a process of looking at what life can be like under the reign of God.
Especially in Advent, when we are looking forward to God himself coming to live with us, repentance is about catching a vision of what the Kingdom of God might look like. And once we’ve caught this vision, we are called to be contagious and infect others with it.
Prevention is not the Answer
I just want to put forward a brief defence of this process.
There are those who might say ‘Well, that’s all fine and good, but the problem with society today is that it has no morals, no ethics. What we really need to do is to stop people from sinning. We need to stop them drinking and gambling their time and money away. We need to stop them neglecting their children. We need to stop them committing adultery. And now that I’m talking about it, I need to concentrate on stopping my own besetting sins. I really need to make an effort to stop being easily angered, to stop being so selfish….or…you can fill in your own besetting sins.
Now here is a demonstration of why I think that thinking about repentance as focussing on stopping our sins won’t work. Are you ready for the demonstration?
OK. Whatever you do, I want you to not think about the colour blue. OK? Do not, under any circumstances think about the colour blue! And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey. And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey riding a camel. Worse and worse, do not think about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone!
OK, now, be honest. How many people are thinking right this moment about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone? And how many of you were thinking about that when you came to church this morning? ‘Gee, I hope the preacher doesn’t talk about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone! I’m trying to give that up for Advent.’
The human mind doesn’t do very well at the task of not concentrating on something specific and that’s why this technique doesn’t work very well. And it’s for this reason that I believe that trying to promote the Kingdom of God by making a list of sins that we ought not to be committing is a completely ineffective approach to spreading the Gospel.
Methodism and The Kingdom of God
Now, there are many people, particularly outside the church, who think that this is exactly what the church does: that we preach against sin all the time.
But, I don’t actually think that Methodism has a tradition of doing this. Preaching against specific sins isn’t something that I’ve particularly encountered in Methodism. I’m sure that there are exceptions – there always are – but that’s not historically been the way we’ve approached the Gospel.
Historically, I think that the Methodist Church has approached the Gospel message by painting a picture of the Kingdom of God. And, at the beginning, at least, I think we not only painted this picture of the Kingdom, but we lived it out.
Methodism did catch a glimpse of a picture of the Kingdom and it was successful in being contagious with it.
Travelling preachers didn’t preach and then call for people to get down on their knees right there in the street and accept Jesus as their saviour. Early Methodist travelling preachers invited their listeners to join Methodist classes and it was within these classes that people gradually came to Christ in the company of Christian brothers and sisters.
These were often people who were considered to be so poor and so unfit to mingle with polite society that they were not fit to go to church. Suddenly, here come the Methodist societies saying: ‘You are welcome in our classes and you are welcome in our chapels. God is the God of everyone and he’s your God too.’
Illiterate people who were simply considered fodder for the mines and the factories were given the opportunity to learn to read and their children were given the same opportunity. People whose lives were viewed by polite society as expendable were told that they were of as much value to God as anyone else. All of this, I believe, was an acting-out of a vision of the Kingdom of God.
True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'" (Buechner)
The Kingdom of God, 101
So, as I often do, I bring to you this morning a question for which I don’t necessarily have my own answer. That question is ‘How can we look out into the future and say “Wow!”’
Because I don’t really agree with those who say the Church has lost its way because it no longer preaches about sin. I think that the Church has lost its way because it no longer has a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
Whatever we in the 21st century might think, the authors of Scripture thought that the Kingdom of God was going to be a literal, physical Kingdom. Jesus’ contemporaries thought that Jesus would return in their own lifetime and inaugurate this Kingdom. And ever since that first generation passed away, the Church has had to make sense of the fact that this has not yet happened.
Add to all of the above the baggage of our own generation and all the Second Coming predictions of wacky Christian sects (mostly American, of course) and it’s easy to see why we no longer have a clear vision of the Kingdom. The Kingdom seems rather embarrassing and somewhat superstitious.
But over and over in both the Old and New Testaments, we are told that in the Kingdom there will be two important things: 1) peace (Shalom) – there will be forgiveness and reconciliation, not just between God and humanity but also between people and, indeed peace in all creation; 2) and there will be justice for the poor, the meek and the oppressed. Their lives will be redeemed and seen to be of worth.
This was the vision of the Kingdom that fired John and Charles Wesley. They were worried about their own eternal, spiritual salvation to be sure, but they also had and communicated a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
What makes you say Wow?
So what is it that makes us say ‘Wow!’? What will help us get a clear vision of The Kingdom? I suggest that this is an important question for every church in this circuit and for the circuit as a whole?
I want to leave you with one concrete example of something that made me say ‘Wow!’ Last week at Foley Park, we had a young woman named G come speak to us from an organisation called ‘Night Stop’.
Night Stop operates within the Wyre Forest District and it finds beds for homeless young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Volunteer hosts offer Night Stop’s clients a bed and meals in their own homes for between one and three nights until Night Stop can find them accommodation elsewhere.
G told us that a great many of these young people are homeless because they have been kicked out of the house by their parents. A good many of them are kicked out because their mother or father gets a new partner who doesn’t want them around and their parent sides with the new partner.
Someone asked about whether it was safe to take such a young person into their home and G told us that the clients are all vetted for suitability before being sent to host families. In fact, she said, many of the young people are suspicious of the hosts simply because they cannot understand the idea that a complete stranger would take them in for a few nights. This sort of kindness is something totally outside their experience.
She read to us a story written by one young woman who was taken in by Night Stop and who now works for them. Night Stop provided that young woman with the opportunity to make a new start and get her feet on the ground and feel like a worthwhile person. In turn, she wanted to help others in the same way.
Night Stop made me say ‘Wow!’ because I think it embodies everything that the Prophets and Jesus had to say about God’s Kingdom. It’s an example of human beings reaching out to other human beings. It provides young people with the possibility of turning their lives around and it is the embodiment of a ‘poor’ person finding some kind of justice and help. I think it is a small glimpse into the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
As we go from our worship this morning, I want to invite all of us to repent. Or, as Frederick Buechner put it, I want to invite all of us to come to our senses and think about what is really important.
I want to invite us to spend less time being sorry about what has happened in the past and to spend more time thinking about what God is doing in the world that makes us say ‘Wow!’ And I want us to think about what it is that makes us say ‘Wow’! What makes us say ‘Wow’ as a circuit? As individual congregations and even as individual church members?
Is there something someone else in this church is doing that makes you say ‘Wow! I wish I could do that, but I can’t.’? Perhaps you can support that person in their ministry.
My prayer this morning is that each and every one of us will catch a vision of God’s Kingdom. I pray that we will be so enthused by this vision that we will say ‘Wow!’ and communicate our enthusiasm to others.
In the words of John the Baptist, my prayer is that, this Advent, we are all enabled to repent, because I believe that the Kingdom of God has indeed come near. Amen
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1 Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC; HarperOne, 1993, New York p. 79.
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Introduction
In this second Sunday of Advent, we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ We also hear the voice of Isaiah giving us his vision of the Kingdom of heaven: It’s a place where the wolf and the lamb live together and where God’s judgement results in equity for the poor and meek.
John the Baptist is not a cuddly character and his message this morning is not a cuddly message. The ordinary people of Jerusalem and Judea come to him to repent and to be baptised, but when the Pharisees and Sadducees come for baptism, he proclaims: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance!’ For those of us who suspect that we may have some Pharisaicial tendencies ourselves, this can make for uncomfortable reading.
The American Christian author Frederick Buechner has this to say about the process of repentance: “To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'"1
This morning, I want to think about this idea of looking at the future and saying ‘Wow!’ Because I don’t think that repentance is so much about focussing on what it is that we shouldn’t be doing as it is a process of looking at what life can be like under the reign of God.
Especially in Advent, when we are looking forward to God himself coming to live with us, repentance is about catching a vision of what the Kingdom of God might look like. And once we’ve caught this vision, we are called to be contagious and infect others with it.
Prevention is not the Answer
I just want to put forward a brief defence of this process.
There are those who might say ‘Well, that’s all fine and good, but the problem with society today is that it has no morals, no ethics. What we really need to do is to stop people from sinning. We need to stop them drinking and gambling their time and money away. We need to stop them neglecting their children. We need to stop them committing adultery. And now that I’m talking about it, I need to concentrate on stopping my own besetting sins. I really need to make an effort to stop being easily angered, to stop being so selfish….or…you can fill in your own besetting sins.
Now here is a demonstration of why I think that thinking about repentance as focussing on stopping our sins won’t work. Are you ready for the demonstration?
OK. Whatever you do, I want you to not think about the colour blue. OK? Do not, under any circumstances think about the colour blue! And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey. And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey riding a camel. Worse and worse, do not think about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone!
OK, now, be honest. How many people are thinking right this moment about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone? And how many of you were thinking about that when you came to church this morning? ‘Gee, I hope the preacher doesn’t talk about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone! I’m trying to give that up for Advent.’
The human mind doesn’t do very well at the task of not concentrating on something specific and that’s why this technique doesn’t work very well. And it’s for this reason that I believe that trying to promote the Kingdom of God by making a list of sins that we ought not to be committing is a completely ineffective approach to spreading the Gospel.
Methodism and The Kingdom of God
Now, there are many people, particularly outside the church, who think that this is exactly what the church does: that we preach against sin all the time.
But, I don’t actually think that Methodism has a tradition of doing this. Preaching against specific sins isn’t something that I’ve particularly encountered in Methodism. I’m sure that there are exceptions – there always are – but that’s not historically been the way we’ve approached the Gospel.
Historically, I think that the Methodist Church has approached the Gospel message by painting a picture of the Kingdom of God. And, at the beginning, at least, I think we not only painted this picture of the Kingdom, but we lived it out.
Methodism did catch a glimpse of a picture of the Kingdom and it was successful in being contagious with it.
Travelling preachers didn’t preach and then call for people to get down on their knees right there in the street and accept Jesus as their saviour. Early Methodist travelling preachers invited their listeners to join Methodist classes and it was within these classes that people gradually came to Christ in the company of Christian brothers and sisters.
These were often people who were considered to be so poor and so unfit to mingle with polite society that they were not fit to go to church. Suddenly, here come the Methodist societies saying: ‘You are welcome in our classes and you are welcome in our chapels. God is the God of everyone and he’s your God too.’
Illiterate people who were simply considered fodder for the mines and the factories were given the opportunity to learn to read and their children were given the same opportunity. People whose lives were viewed by polite society as expendable were told that they were of as much value to God as anyone else. All of this, I believe, was an acting-out of a vision of the Kingdom of God.
True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'" (Buechner)
The Kingdom of God, 101
So, as I often do, I bring to you this morning a question for which I don’t necessarily have my own answer. That question is ‘How can we look out into the future and say “Wow!”’
Because I don’t really agree with those who say the Church has lost its way because it no longer preaches about sin. I think that the Church has lost its way because it no longer has a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
Whatever we in the 21st century might think, the authors of Scripture thought that the Kingdom of God was going to be a literal, physical Kingdom. Jesus’ contemporaries thought that Jesus would return in their own lifetime and inaugurate this Kingdom. And ever since that first generation passed away, the Church has had to make sense of the fact that this has not yet happened.
Add to all of the above the baggage of our own generation and all the Second Coming predictions of wacky Christian sects (mostly American, of course) and it’s easy to see why we no longer have a clear vision of the Kingdom. The Kingdom seems rather embarrassing and somewhat superstitious.
But over and over in both the Old and New Testaments, we are told that in the Kingdom there will be two important things: 1) peace (Shalom) – there will be forgiveness and reconciliation, not just between God and humanity but also between people and, indeed peace in all creation; 2) and there will be justice for the poor, the meek and the oppressed. Their lives will be redeemed and seen to be of worth.
This was the vision of the Kingdom that fired John and Charles Wesley. They were worried about their own eternal, spiritual salvation to be sure, but they also had and communicated a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
What makes you say Wow?
So what is it that makes us say ‘Wow!’? What will help us get a clear vision of The Kingdom? I suggest that this is an important question for every church in this circuit and for the circuit as a whole?
I want to leave you with one concrete example of something that made me say ‘Wow!’ Last week at Foley Park, we had a young woman named G come speak to us from an organisation called ‘Night Stop’.
Night Stop operates within the Wyre Forest District and it finds beds for homeless young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Volunteer hosts offer Night Stop’s clients a bed and meals in their own homes for between one and three nights until Night Stop can find them accommodation elsewhere.
G told us that a great many of these young people are homeless because they have been kicked out of the house by their parents. A good many of them are kicked out because their mother or father gets a new partner who doesn’t want them around and their parent sides with the new partner.
Someone asked about whether it was safe to take such a young person into their home and G told us that the clients are all vetted for suitability before being sent to host families. In fact, she said, many of the young people are suspicious of the hosts simply because they cannot understand the idea that a complete stranger would take them in for a few nights. This sort of kindness is something totally outside their experience.
She read to us a story written by one young woman who was taken in by Night Stop and who now works for them. Night Stop provided that young woman with the opportunity to make a new start and get her feet on the ground and feel like a worthwhile person. In turn, she wanted to help others in the same way.
Night Stop made me say ‘Wow!’ because I think it embodies everything that the Prophets and Jesus had to say about God’s Kingdom. It’s an example of human beings reaching out to other human beings. It provides young people with the possibility of turning their lives around and it is the embodiment of a ‘poor’ person finding some kind of justice and help. I think it is a small glimpse into the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
As we go from our worship this morning, I want to invite all of us to repent. Or, as Frederick Buechner put it, I want to invite all of us to come to our senses and think about what is really important.
I want to invite us to spend less time being sorry about what has happened in the past and to spend more time thinking about what God is doing in the world that makes us say ‘Wow!’ And I want us to think about what it is that makes us say ‘Wow’! What makes us say ‘Wow’ as a circuit? As individual congregations and even as individual church members?
Is there something someone else in this church is doing that makes you say ‘Wow! I wish I could do that, but I can’t.’? Perhaps you can support that person in their ministry.
My prayer this morning is that each and every one of us will catch a vision of God’s Kingdom. I pray that we will be so enthused by this vision that we will say ‘Wow!’ and communicate our enthusiasm to others.
In the words of John the Baptist, my prayer is that, this Advent, we are all enabled to repent, because I believe that the Kingdom of God has indeed come near. Amen
----
1 Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC; HarperOne, 1993, New York p. 79.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Sunday 13 Mary 2007 - Inspired by Oscar Romero
Today we tried having a discussion rather than a whole sermon. It worked very well and we had a very interesting discussion as a congregation about 'what is sin'?
As you can see from the sermon, it was a sermon for the launching of Christian Aid Week. The discussion was inspired by the Gospel reading that Oscar Romero read on the day he was murdered: John 12:20-26.
====
Who knows who Oscar Romero was?
Oscar Romero was born in El Salvador in Central American in 1917. When he left school, he apprenticed to a carpenter but soon started thinking about becoming a Roman Catholic priest - against the wishes of his family. He trained for the priesthood in two cities in El Salvador and then went to study in Rome. He was ordained in Rome in 1942, during the Second World War.
Romero returned to El Salvador and worked as a parish priest and as the head of a theology college before becoming the Archbishop of the capital city of San Salvador in 1977. He was murdered, in his church by the army, on 24 March 1980 because he continually spoke out against the government’s murder of the poor people.
Does anyone remember why the government was killing its own poor?
The right-wing government said that it was trying to defeat communist guerrillas and the government’s murder of its people was funded by the United States.
Does anyone want to have a guess how many of its own people the government of El Salvador was killing every month during the late 1970s and early 1980s? 3000 people per month.
When he first became Archbishop, nobody expected Oscar Romero to speak out against the government and to take up the cause of the poor. He was actually elected to be bishop of the capital city San Salvador because he was seen as being a ‘conservative’ - as someone who wouldn’t rock the boat and give support to the poor (and to the guerrillas)
But all that changed when a priest in Romero’s diocese was killed by the army along with two of his parishioners. The priest was killed because he defended the peasant's rights to organize farm cooperatives. Romero went to see the body of the priest as well as the old man and seven year old child who were killed with him, and he was changed forever.
On the day before his murder by the army, Romero spoke out and said that it was a sin for the government to murder its own people and that, because of what the army was being used for, Christian men should not feel that they had to obey the draft. Romero said that Christians were free to disobey human laws which went against God’s law.
As I said earlier, Romero was shot down in church the following day, whilst leading worship. The Gospel reading that morning was the one we heard earlier: ‘…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’
I’d like us to listen to some quotations from Oscar Romero and I’d like to have a chat about whether or not we can see any connection between his thoughts and the Gospel of Christ. Before we start, I also want to say that you may disagree with some of the quotations and that’s perfectly OK. I’m not saying that Romero got everything right or that we can’t question him. I am not elevating what he said to the status of God’s word. I simply think that, in light of the witness of his deeds, that some of his thoughts might be worth us thinking about this morning.
1) ‘The Church, like Jesus, has to go on denouncing sin in our own day. It has to denounce the selfishness that is hidden in everyone's heart, the sin that dehumanizes persons, destroys families, and turns money, possessions, profit, and power into the ultimate ends for which persons strive. And the church has also to denounce what has rightly been called 'structural sin:' those social, economic, cultural, and political structures that drive people onto the margins of society. When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to the misery from which the cry arises.’ — Oscar Romero, 6 August 1977.
2) ‘To try to preach without referring to the history one preaches in is not to preach the gospel. Many would like a preaching so spiritualistic that it leaves sinners unbothered and does not term idolaters those who kneel before money and power. A preaching that says nothing of the sinful environment in which the gospel is reflected upon is not the gospel.’ Oscar Romero, 18 February 1979.
3) ‘The church is obliged to demand structural changes that favour the reign of God and a more just and comradely way of life. Unjust social structures are the roots of all violence and disturbances. How hard and conflicting are the results of duty! Those who benefit from obsolete structures react selfishly to any kind of change.’ Oscar Romero, November 1979.
[Reading of the Gospel again]
‘Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grain of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies… We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us’. Oscar Romero, 24 March 1980
We are still in the Easter season and I think that the grain of wheat which dies is a fantastic picture of resurrection. The picture that Romero paints is also a very challenging picture of what the church is about. There is a very real sense in which Christ lives on in the world through the church. That’s why we’re called the body of Christ.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that Jesus’ resurrection or our future resurrection is only about planting seeds. I don’t think that the resurrection is a mythical morality tale. It’s not that we plant the seeds of God’s love or do what is right because these are the only ways for resurrection to happen. It’s that we plant the seeds of God’s love and we do what is right in the eyes of God because Jesus rose from the dead.
Conclusion
In Jesus, God became human. He lived with us, he experienced our joys and our sorrows and he taught us God’s ways. He taught us to love one another as he loves us, because our love is the way that other people experience God’s love on earth. Our love is also the way that others can hear, see and experience the good news of Jesus.
Today is Christian Aid Sunday, the beginning of Christian Aid Week. It is part of our discipleship to support the work of Christians who are called to work full time to bring relief to those in need – whether at home or in other parts of the world.
So, as we come to communion together in a few minutes, we remember that we are Christian brothers and sisters together with Christians in Latin America and in all parts of the world; and we thank God for groups such as Christian Aid. We remember that, at his table, we are united together with Christ who was crucified for our sins, rose triumphant from the grave and reigns with the Father through all eternity.
We ask that God will strengthen all people who suffer and that he will bring all creation into his Kingdom. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord and Saviour. Amen
As you can see from the sermon, it was a sermon for the launching of Christian Aid Week. The discussion was inspired by the Gospel reading that Oscar Romero read on the day he was murdered: John 12:20-26.
====
Who knows who Oscar Romero was?
Oscar Romero was born in El Salvador in Central American in 1917. When he left school, he apprenticed to a carpenter but soon started thinking about becoming a Roman Catholic priest - against the wishes of his family. He trained for the priesthood in two cities in El Salvador and then went to study in Rome. He was ordained in Rome in 1942, during the Second World War.
Romero returned to El Salvador and worked as a parish priest and as the head of a theology college before becoming the Archbishop of the capital city of San Salvador in 1977. He was murdered, in his church by the army, on 24 March 1980 because he continually spoke out against the government’s murder of the poor people.
Does anyone remember why the government was killing its own poor?
The right-wing government said that it was trying to defeat communist guerrillas and the government’s murder of its people was funded by the United States.
Does anyone want to have a guess how many of its own people the government of El Salvador was killing every month during the late 1970s and early 1980s? 3000 people per month.
When he first became Archbishop, nobody expected Oscar Romero to speak out against the government and to take up the cause of the poor. He was actually elected to be bishop of the capital city San Salvador because he was seen as being a ‘conservative’ - as someone who wouldn’t rock the boat and give support to the poor (and to the guerrillas)
But all that changed when a priest in Romero’s diocese was killed by the army along with two of his parishioners. The priest was killed because he defended the peasant's rights to organize farm cooperatives. Romero went to see the body of the priest as well as the old man and seven year old child who were killed with him, and he was changed forever.
On the day before his murder by the army, Romero spoke out and said that it was a sin for the government to murder its own people and that, because of what the army was being used for, Christian men should not feel that they had to obey the draft. Romero said that Christians were free to disobey human laws which went against God’s law.
As I said earlier, Romero was shot down in church the following day, whilst leading worship. The Gospel reading that morning was the one we heard earlier: ‘…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’
I’d like us to listen to some quotations from Oscar Romero and I’d like to have a chat about whether or not we can see any connection between his thoughts and the Gospel of Christ. Before we start, I also want to say that you may disagree with some of the quotations and that’s perfectly OK. I’m not saying that Romero got everything right or that we can’t question him. I am not elevating what he said to the status of God’s word. I simply think that, in light of the witness of his deeds, that some of his thoughts might be worth us thinking about this morning.
1) ‘The Church, like Jesus, has to go on denouncing sin in our own day. It has to denounce the selfishness that is hidden in everyone's heart, the sin that dehumanizes persons, destroys families, and turns money, possessions, profit, and power into the ultimate ends for which persons strive. And the church has also to denounce what has rightly been called 'structural sin:' those social, economic, cultural, and political structures that drive people onto the margins of society. When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to the misery from which the cry arises.’ — Oscar Romero, 6 August 1977.
2) ‘To try to preach without referring to the history one preaches in is not to preach the gospel. Many would like a preaching so spiritualistic that it leaves sinners unbothered and does not term idolaters those who kneel before money and power. A preaching that says nothing of the sinful environment in which the gospel is reflected upon is not the gospel.’ Oscar Romero, 18 February 1979.
3) ‘The church is obliged to demand structural changes that favour the reign of God and a more just and comradely way of life. Unjust social structures are the roots of all violence and disturbances. How hard and conflicting are the results of duty! Those who benefit from obsolete structures react selfishly to any kind of change.’ Oscar Romero, November 1979.
[Reading of the Gospel again]
‘Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grain of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies… We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us’. Oscar Romero, 24 March 1980
We are still in the Easter season and I think that the grain of wheat which dies is a fantastic picture of resurrection. The picture that Romero paints is also a very challenging picture of what the church is about. There is a very real sense in which Christ lives on in the world through the church. That’s why we’re called the body of Christ.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that Jesus’ resurrection or our future resurrection is only about planting seeds. I don’t think that the resurrection is a mythical morality tale. It’s not that we plant the seeds of God’s love or do what is right because these are the only ways for resurrection to happen. It’s that we plant the seeds of God’s love and we do what is right in the eyes of God because Jesus rose from the dead.
Conclusion
In Jesus, God became human. He lived with us, he experienced our joys and our sorrows and he taught us God’s ways. He taught us to love one another as he loves us, because our love is the way that other people experience God’s love on earth. Our love is also the way that others can hear, see and experience the good news of Jesus.
Today is Christian Aid Sunday, the beginning of Christian Aid Week. It is part of our discipleship to support the work of Christians who are called to work full time to bring relief to those in need – whether at home or in other parts of the world.
So, as we come to communion together in a few minutes, we remember that we are Christian brothers and sisters together with Christians in Latin America and in all parts of the world; and we thank God for groups such as Christian Aid. We remember that, at his table, we are united together with Christ who was crucified for our sins, rose triumphant from the grave and reigns with the Father through all eternity.
We ask that God will strengthen all people who suffer and that he will bring all creation into his Kingdom. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord and Saviour. Amen
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