Sermon - Trinity 7

Today’s gospel reading (Matt 11:16-19,25-30) often reminds me of the problems the Church today faces in making ourselves both relevant and heard. Jesus is speaking to people after he has been questioned by followers of John the Baptist about whether he is the promised Messiah or not, and you can almost sense his exasperation as he talks of people’s dissatisfaction.
And he says, ‘John (the Baptist) came neither eating or drinking, and they say, “he has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners !”’
Over the last week or so the Anglican Communion has once more been divided with some Bishops holding their own meeting in Jerusalem, and refusing to attend the Lambeth Conference. Without commenting either way on the rights and wrongs of the various arguments, I think you have to feel sorry for Archbishop Rowan Williams who must somehow try to hold together 2 groups that are absolutely miles apart, when neither of those groups would even consider any sort of compromise.
Division and discontent are sad realities of human nature. Closer to home, I’m sure we can all think of people who seem to be dissatisfied all the time as if they were constantly under attack – when only some people are satisfied! We all know people who love to talk in negative tones about the signs of the times – prophets of doom – only able to offer a negative view, seemingly unable to properly engage with the discussion.
In Jesus’ time it was just the same. People of course had their own idea of what the Messiah would look like, what he would do, and what his presence would mean for them… Jesus didn’t fit this image because he never could – the images that the people had were selfish – they were for their own benefit.
Some of those who saw Jesus missed totally what his message was about because of selfishness and self interest… it would be great to say that we never fall into that trap but I’m pretty sure that most of us do at times! And the only way to try and avoid that is to try and remain focused on Jesus.
He didn’t come to meet our expectations, he didn’t come to get rid of all the nasty people in the world, he didn’t come to enforce some sort of rule on people – he came filled with love and compassion to offer a gift that could never be bought – a gift even more precious than earthly life itself…
Today we get caught up very often trying to be the people others expect, or trying to do the things that we think we’re supposed to do. As a Church we often convince ourselves that we have to preserve a tradition - that we have to maintain everything as it was many years ago. As a Church what we are NOT to preserve any particular tradition to please ourselves - but further the ministry of Jesus, in other words making known in words and actions his message, a message that is as relevant today as it has ever been.
Last weeks service reminded me that world turns and people change, and the church should be sensitive to the fact that it too must change to survive. However poetic and beautiful the language of the 1662 Book of Common prayer, I know that if we used it each and every week, with the priest being distant from the people, and the words being repeated like the words of a song in an historic language, the church would stop speaking to the people.
It is worth mentioning here that it is not only historic liturgy that this can happen with. Services which would be considered modern can become self-centred and self-righteous – not really looking for mission but maintenance.
And this thought has meaning for us as individuals as well, because faith is personal but it should also be proclaimed together publicly in worship, but if it is not making a real difference to our lives, then just like so many people who met Jesus, we are missing the point.
As Jesus goes on to explain in this gospel message, he came to bring peace to those whose burden was heavy, to all those who are weary, and there are probably times when that includes every one of us.
It is said that when the British and French were fighting in Canada in the 1750s, Admiral Phipps, the commander of the British fleet, was told to anchor outside Quebec. He was given orders to wait for the British land forces to arrive, then support them when they attacked the city. Phipps' navy arrived early.
As he waited, Phipps, who was opposed to any shows of Catholicism, became annoyed by the statues of the saints that adorned the towers of a nearby cathedral, so he commanded his men to shoot at them with the ships' cannons. No one knows how many rounds were fired or how many statues were knocked out, but when the land forces arrived and the signal was given to attack, the admiral was of no help. He had used up all his ammunition shooting at the "saints."
Today, some people in the church still ‘stamp their feet’ metaphorically speaking – firing remarks and making gestures that will benefit nobody but themselves. Taking their ball and going home.
As a church we will certainly never satisfy everyone (and I don’t think we should bother trying)– people expect different things of us as Christians and as Churches, just as they expected different things of Jesus. It is not for us to act like they expect us to. We should remember that just because The Lambeth Conference will be a bloodbath of selfishness, we shouldn’t, mustn’t copy them. We should only focus on him and try to be like him in all of our dealings with others.
Sadly, Jesus’ exasperation, expressed so well in this reading, must have been compounded so many times through the history of Christianity… We must surely not make it worse today…
If you are exasperated by the church, then this Sunday is the Sunday for you, it is when the Gospels remind us that Our Lord was exasperated too.
And to this end we can do no better than to just listen to the commands of Jesus, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself’, whoever that neighbour is and whatever that neighbour may think of you, and then of course ‘Go out into the world making disciples of all nations’, remembering always that Jesus is with us. He is with us here, He is with us when we wake up, when we go to sleep, he is with us every moment of every day. AMEN