Sermon - The Ninteenth Sunday after Trinity

Ok. So it took longer than I thought! First I moved, then the internet went down big stylee! Enough already!

Job 38.1-7(34-41)

Hebrews 5.1-10

Mark 10.35-45

This is our task together…to find the living GOD and discover the right way and the wrong way to Christ. To share the things we have learned already, and be ready once again to listen for His voice.

I looked at this mornings Gospel and couldn’t help laughing – because however bad we might be as Christians – James and John are worse….

What were James and John thinking of? They had been followers of Christ for some time, they had seen miracle upon miracle, they had listened to the teaching of Our Lord, and they had spent precious time trying to understand the things that had been revealed to them. They still managed to stir up division with the other disciples, by seeking preferment, by trying to place themselves at the right hand and left hand of Christ in Glory.

The question might seem a fairly harmless one, but the demand of “teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask of you” was met by a clear and meaningful reply. Christ says, “You do not know what you are asking”. And I for one am convinced that they didn’t.

If they knew exactly what the implications of the question were, they would have been more cautious. The whole issue of power and hierarchy was changing. Christ had come to precipitate the reversal of the old order, of what had gone before. He was not incarnate to force these things himself, but to show the will of God through love and sacrifice. To give them, (and us today) an option; we know the score – how will we act?

This part of the Christian calendar is known as “Ordinary time” that great swathe of time from Trinity Sunday to the Kingdom, however it is anything but ordinary, through the readings we are challenged to look closely at ourselves.

James and John have uncovered another one of our idols, the idol of earthly power. The drive for power over others in human terms is reversed by Christ, who invites us to consider the ultimate promotion. This is brought about by a greater understanding of God, that we find when we place ourselves in the role of the servant. “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all”.

It is a time for us to reflect, with the help of the Gospel readings, on the message that Christ has for us, and the relevance of his teachings to us today, 2000 years on. The Gospels have challenged us again, another idol has been revealed, and we sit uncomfortably, just as James and John did.

To add to the love of money, the law, and selfishness, we can add the lust for power.

I think that it is quite pleasing to find that when Our Lord handpicked a dozen or so to follow him, they suffered all the same imperfections that we have today. It is strange in the sense that not a lot has changed. I would like to say “Oh…that was then, things don’t happen like that now!” But they do.

So, what exactly is the problem with seeking power over others? What was Jesus talking of when he spoke of tyrants in the reading?

It was clear to Christ that much of the disorder in the society of the time was caused by the existence of ‘structures of domination’. If it wasn’t the Romans it was the domestic laws oppressing the weak and the poor; the persistence and promotion of hunger and poverty, and the growth and persistence of concentrated wealth, all contrived to make a significant proportion of society clearly second-class. The poor were an integral part of society; they were needed by the powerful to justify their existence. And it seems this way today, only more modern!

The heralding of Christ was not simply justice for the downtrodden, but the removal of the oppressors. This was the complete reversal that Christ brought.

Sing me the old, old story!

In the order for Evening Prayer we say (or beautifully sing) the Magnificat, the Song of Mary that heralded the birth of Our Lord. We recite the wonderful lines about the mighty being ‘cast down from their thrones’ and the lowly being ‘lifted up’. However the gap between the powerful and the powerless is becoming bigger and bigger, and we can talk about it all we like, but it won’t make a difference.

There is a story about a man called TOM THOMAS, who founded the Workers’ Theatre Movement, he pointed to the daily recitation of the magnificat as the reason for leaving the church in favour of a political struggle. He had sung in the choir for years about the putting down of the mighty, and the raising up of the lowly, and it had become perfectly clear to him, as he looked around the congregation, that God had done nothing of the kind, and it was high time that someone else did.

Of course, what Tom realised is that, apart from a few startling examples, the main role of the church and other religious groups is one of limited reform, attitude-changing and spiritual renewal. As soon as there is some progress towards anything radical, the hierarchy rushes to distance itself from it. Returning to the safe world of ‘general’ principles.

This holiness does not mean that we are somehow apart from society; it means that we are integral to it. Today we meet to celebrate HOLY COMMUNION, the Holy and the Common together. It is not only the name of the central Christian act of Worship; it also sums up the whole meaning of Christian life, which is the practice of a holy life in the midst of humankind.

As we move further into a future of inequality and power for the few, the meaning of the Eucharist becomes more and more real, with its imagery of sharing and equality.

Power is not an issue at the Lord’s Table. It matters not, who is first or last, it is of no significance whom stands next to whom.

We join together to celebrate our faith and to share in the sacred mysteries that remind us of lessons taught long ago, to people like James and John, people who are just like us today. WE have been called by God to repent of our sins and become NEW PEOPLE.

So, if we are NEW PEOPLE in the body of Christ, then we are able to follow Our Lord’s example, and question the MORALITY of AUTHORITY and HIERARCHY.

We can ask the questions;

Why are the mighty still on their thrones?

Who is going to exalt the humble and meek?

Although James and John probably wished they never asked the question, it is important that they did. It has given us the chance to understand the purpose of Christ, as the catalyst of change, and a reversal of the old order. We can see that as Christians should be willing to serve the needs of their brothers and sisters. And finally that GOD is not asking us to be TRANSFORMED, into saints. Saints with the task of asking the difficult questions, to work for the growth of the kingdom of God on Earth, where there is no mighty and no lowly, just all together in the love of GOD.