Sermon Kingdom 2 Remembrance Sunday

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 2006

Jonah 3.1-5,10

Hebrews 9.24-28

Mark 1.14-20

Today is a sad day; we remember those who have lost their lives in war, throughout the ages. And we come together to give thanks for the sacrifice, and to mourn the loss. We need not have known someone personally or lost a close relative, to appreciate the cost in human terms, and the absolute horror, and disaster that war creates.

Today we can all share together in the great sense of loss, not just for the Great War and the 1939-1945 War, but all conflicts of the past to this present day. We can also bear in mind those involved in armed conflict as we speak.

What do you think of when you hear of war?

Some people here have lived in a nation at war. When war has been an ever-present threat, not only to those at the front line, but those at home. I myself have been lucky, in my lifetime, I have never needed to retreat to the bomb shelter or subsist on rations. They tell me that powdered egg was an experience in itself. In all seriousness, In the past as I have stood in the rain to conduct the service at a war memorial, I could see the effect that war had made on the assembled people, more than half a century ago.

The feeling of loss and the anger at wasted potential was present, as was the gratitude for the sacrifice that others had made. It is always an intensely sad experience. At a funeral we usually have the opportunity to rejoice in our sadness, for the contribution that lifelong commitment has brought. Family; children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews not to mention friends and colleagues, all eager to boast of good memories, and times spend in happiness. However on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, standing in the cold, listening to the silence - we mourn the loss of potential, what might have been, if almost a generation hadn’t been taken from us. To me, that is the true horror of war.

I suspect that when war breaks out, a nation is expected to make decisions. Politicians and leaders are put on the spot to discern ‘good’ from ‘evil’, or more precisely ‘that, which helps the nation grow’ from ‘that, which is damaging’. These decisions are made usually, somewhere up there in the ether of government, and the citizens who trust their elected representatives follow, to serve the ‘common good’.

Today on remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday of the kingdom, the readings show not nations, but individuals, being put on the spot, to discern ‘good’ from ‘evil’ and take action. The ever-reluctant Jonah, on his mission impossible to Nineveh. The writer of Hebrews reporting the mission of Christ himself to be the sacrificial lamb, whose blood would be spilled once for all. And in the Gospel, we heard the call to Simon, Andrew, James and John, who dropped their nets to follow Christ.

The all the journeys were uncertain, and almost certain to end in a premature death, but they ALL had made their decisions and moved forward.

When God puts us on the spot (and he certainly will in everybody’s life at some point). We may bargain and we try to play for time, but the sense that the greater good is with God moves us to action, from complacency to deed. The liberation theologians of South America might say from orthodoxy to orthopraxy. This means right-thoughts being changed to right-actions.

I wonder sometimes if the brothers really did drop their nets, or had they been thinking about it for some time? Had they heard of the messiah, and discussed him at length? Had God spoken to them and guided them, as part of his plan? Did they carry on fishing, waiting for the personal call of Christ?

When we think about God calling us to be more of what He wants us to be, we can see this in action in the form of Jesus, acting as God acts still today. Ordinary people with ordinary jobs and ordinary lives are called out to do work. No one gets a certificate from God to justify their actions, we must justify them for ourselves, trusting in God. The question, “will my actions further the kingdom of God on earth?”

In a real sense, we should all be always ready to drop our nets for the sake of peace, justice and love. I would like to wake up each morning and think “what can I do today to make things better for others?” “What can I do that makes a difference?” “How can I best use this precious gift of life?”

These are important questions but they do give you a headache. The truth is that we must just do our best to use the opportunities given to us; each day might bring us another chance to do a good job.

I remember that one cold Sunday I managed to miss the chance to help – as I went to do a baptism in Cardiff I noticed that a man was cooking his lunch on a makeshift stove. It looked as though he had been there for a few days, and as I walked up the path to the church I managed to avoid eye contact and pretend he wasn’t there. Perhaps I thought he would call out “big issue mate?” or ask for money, I was a bit miffed that I had left the comfort of my own home on Sunday afternoon to be jolly in a freezing church. He didn’t say anything, but as the family arrived he packed his stuff away and made himself scarce. The opportunity to ask if he was ok, to chat about the weather or the rugby was gone. I might not have been able to give him money (assuming that he wanted any) but I could have given some time.

I wonder sometimes where we would be if people like Simone Weil, Henri Perrin and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, murdered by the Nazis, had a bad day, and decided that it was too much hassle to stand up for all God’s children. What if the apostles heard Jesus and decided that they would carry on fishing because they had heard that the Jesus bloke was a bit of an idiot, and would get them into trouble. “come and be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people”. “no thanks, we are a bit busy at the moment – perhaps next week?”

Where is our battleground though? Where do we make a difference? Aren’t things ok as they are?

We can pray –most importantly- for things that need fixing. We can be concerned about the things that are wrong. We can do what we can to make life uncomfortable for those who oppress others, by speaking the truth.

The rise of the neo-nazi right wing in Europe – The Front National in France, the National Democratic Party and the German People’s Union all should give us cause for concern, not to mention the spread of historical revisionism about the holocaust – telling us that 60 million people just disappeared in the second world war, and were not murdered. All these things have raised the old demons that we thought were gone. More locally, our own record of economic management since the boom years after the Second World War has created an underclass – poverty and discrimination is rife and getting worse.

A new set of martyrs are needed, martyrs who may not die in their struggle. There may be no crucifixion or stoning, but the struggle will be long and hard. The mission is to proclaim the love of Christ to a broken world, to bring hope to the destitute and solidarity for the oppressed. If we do noting else this year, lets all get involved to the best of our abilities, to help others see Christ in us.

Do we drop our nets and go, or do we stay fishing?

The First Sunday of the Kingdom

Ok, I reckon I should be back on track by now. I hope you enjoy this one. :-)

As we move into the special time of the year we call the Kingdom season, we can see how the great span of ordinary time is behind us – this is my favourite time of year – it isn’t merely the time when I write my list to Santa, and hope that I have been a good boy, it is the time when I can really think about my faith, and what I have done in the last year.

As the church season changes, it appears that the weather seems to have changed to a different season, as well. We are moving towards the prayerful and thoughtful time of Advent, but before we get there, we can enjoy this the Kingdom Season – the time when we think about the Kingdom of God – and whether the world has moved closer to it or further away this year.

The phrase ‘Kingdom of God’ occurs in the New Testament more than 100 times and refers to the reign or sovereignty of God over all things. This was in contrast to the reign of earthly powers, especially the Jewish Temple State and the Roman Empire, which occupied Nazareth and Capernaum, where Jesus lived, and, most notably, Jerusalem

Throughout the History of our faith different people have expressed the idea of “the kingdom” in different ways. Eusebius identified the Kingdom with the monarchy, Augustine saw a merger of the church and the Kingdom. Many others have given us their own ideas of what it might mean. However, today, I don’t think it is a difficult concept at all. It wasn’t for Jesus, when He spoke of the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, He always assumes His listeners know what the means.

Jesus assumes his hearers understand the Kingdom foundation that was laid in the Hebrew Scriptures. When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God/heaven (both meaning the same thing) he speaks of the time of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. A time of a restored earth where the faithful will worship and serve their God forever under the rulership of a righteous leader of the Davidic line. This was the Messianic hope of the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures and was carried over and echoed in the words of John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, Paul and others in the Greek Scriptures.

This isn’t difficult to understand;

Don’t millions upon millions of people pray this day for a better tomorrow, when the earth will be under compassionate, fair and equitable rule?

Don’t millions of people cry out for a future free of war, violence, oppression, drought, famine and disease?

In the Gospel reading for this morning – as soon as the man understands the importance of loving his neighbour as he loves himself, Jesus tells him that he is not far from the Kingdom of God.

Jesus often spoke of the Kingdom of God as the theme of his gospel as well as the destination for the righteous in the end of days. Last week we heard Jesus' words in his the Sermon on the Mount shows that the reward for those who follow the "beatitudes" are rewarded with the Kingdom of God/inheriting the earth/comfort etc.

Matthew 19 gives an account of Jesus equating popular terms such as "eternal life" and "saved" as the same thing as entering the Kingdom of God when it is established upon the earth. Jesus even taught his disciples to pray: "Let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." defining just what the Kingdom will be - the time when God's will is done on the earth as it is done in heaven.

God’s people still cry out in the darkness of this present age – for justice, change, revolution, and the Kingdom of God.

So what can we do as Christians to put this right? What can we do to make it all right? Why hasn’t anything been done already? These are the thoughts for the Kingdom Season.

Back in the 3^rd century St. Cyprian wrote to a friend named Donatus,

‘This seems a cheerful world Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see; brigands on the high road, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheatres men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness. It really is a bad world, an incredibly bad world.

Yet in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand ties better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people are Christians and I am one of them.’

Some 1700 years have passed since those words were written, yet the dark picture that Cyprian painted of the world perhaps hasn’t changed too much – there may not be amphitheatres, there may not be pirates, but any of us can turn on the television and see enough evidence around of things which are very wrong in the world.

I wonder however whether the picture that Cyprian painted of the Christians is quite so recognisable in our Churches today. Cyprian describes Christians as a quiet and holy people, and it is to that sort of people that Paul wrote to in his letter to the Thessalonians. Cyprian writes of a people who despite persecution and hatred, have discovered a joy a thousand times greater than anything else they could find.

Perhaps we have been passed down the wrong idea as Christians? Perhaps the joy from knowing Christ as our Saviour should have been translated not into a Holy comfort, and a willingness to put up with wrongs. But perhaps as Christianity grew it should have been translated into a call to action? We aren’t persecuted now, so why are we still quiet and Holy, when we could be loud and demanding?

I don’t know, but it seems that the Kingdom of God is as far off now as it ever was.

And what about a holy people – Cyprian was writing about a people who were set apart, decent, honest, kind and thoughtful – and I think Christians still are today – however it is often not the impression many people have of the Church. I read a story once of a man who was teaching people to be ushers at a large Church, and he said, ‘Remember, that we have nothing but good kind Christians in this Church – until you try to put someone else in their pew.’

The message of the Church is often perceived rightly or wrongly as a message for an elite group – a group to whom only certain people are welcome – but the Church must be welcome to all – we must seek to echo the sentiments of a notice put outside a Church in the Bronx in New York, ‘Do come in – trespassers will be forgiven.’ The Church throughout this country has been so tarnished by years of indifference and judgmental behaviour that we have a lot of ground to make up.

Christ calls us to be a light shining in the darkness of the world, the light that is Christ shining through us. And too often we can lack the joy of faith – the joy of knowing that we are serving and worshipping a God who loves us.

I’ll finish with this illustration. We can think of the story of a hundred concert pianos. If you tune the second piano to the first, and the 3^rd to the 2^nd, and the 4^th to the 3^rd and so on until you have tuned all 100 pianos, you will by the end have discord and disharmony – but if you tune each piano to the same tuning fork, you will have unity and harmony.

And that is true of the Church – when we tune ourselves to other people we will so often have discord and disharmony, but when we tune ourselves to Christ, and him alone, then we will have unity, unity of love and unity of purpose