The First Sunday of the Kingdom

Back in the 3rd 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.’

On our Diocesan trip to Rome, we were shown around the Coliseum. Our tour guide answered all the questions from the clergy on the architecture and history of the magnificent building, and then it was my turn. I asked innocently, “and how many people and animals would be killed in one day here?”. Some clergy groaned, someone said “trust you to ask the gory questions”. I was a bit shocked. Reflecting on this over a bottle of Chianti in the evening, I thought that however magnificent the building is, surely it is overshadowed by the misery and death that took place there. Surely this was part of our Christian heritage – surely this is more important than where the stones came from. I didn’t take anyone to task over it – I had run out of energy at this point. The answer from the guide was up to 10,000 animals and 1,000 people during a festival that might last a week. It was not a beautiful place for me, it was a very sinister place.

Some 1700 years have passed since Cyprian wrote those words, and 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.

In the part of the letter which we have heard (2:9-13) Paul reminds the members of the Church there of the work he and his fellow workers had put done in sharing the gospel message with them – he reminded them of the fact that it was God, through him, who had spoken to the people – a quiet and holy people, and a people who, like those St. Cyprian mentioned, faced persecution and hatred, and yet did so with joy.

So how recognisable is the Church today from that of which St. Cyprian wrote, and that to which St. Paul wrote. How quiet are we ? How holy ? and how joyful ?

When Cyprian wrote of a quiet people I think perhaps he was describing a people who were not boastful, who were not obnoxious or judgmental or demanding – G.K.Chesterton writing in a somewhat more modern context than Cyprian also wrote of a quiet Church – however what he wrote was that ‘The great criticism of the Church today is that no one wants to persecute it: because there is nothing very much to persecute about it.’

When Paul wrote and when Cyprian wrote they knew of a Church that was revolutionary in their belief, a Church that was ready to proclaim and ready to die for the fact that Jesus was a Saviour who could change lives, and change the whole world. They spoke with no fear, but simply with conviction. Too often today the Church can meet the title of being a quiet people, but too often that quietness simply manifests itself in saying nothing about anything, in other words failing in our duty to share the Gospel message with others.

And what about a holy people – again perhaps Cyprian was writing of a people who were set apart through their decency, through their honesty, their compassion, their kindness, perhaps through their prayer life or the study of scriptures.

Sadly that is often not the impression many people have of the Church.

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 – I thought it would be good to have a sign on the door of any church which reads - ‘Do come in – trespassers will be forgiven.’

So much for quiet and holy but what about a people full of joy ? Well I think we’re pretty fortunate in this Benefice to have people who truly enjoy their faith – people who rejoice in their salvation and who enjoy coming to worship, but once again the image of 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.

And that is a challenge each one of us faces – in our worship are we reflecting feelings of joy to others, and in our lives outside Church are people seeing something different – are we reflecting Christ in our everyday lives, because that is what he has called us to do. Put even more simply – is faith, is Christ, making a difference in our lives… as it did in the lives of the people to whom Paul and Cyprian wrote ?

And Paul, I think, in his letter to the Thessalonians offers a reason for our problems. As he writes to the people he, as I’ve already mentioned, reminds them that the gospel they have accepted is the gospel of Jesus – Good news for the world. They have not accepted his words, but the words and the promises of God spoken through him and his fellow missionaries.

I realise that I’m doing a lot of speculating in this sermon but if Cyprian was writing today he may, as well as speaking of the terrible problems in the world mention also the fact that the Church is too often bound by the words of people within it – too often we are caught up in the arguments of others, too often we are influenced by the thoughts of others – and there’s nothing particularly wrong with that… except when we fail to seek the will of God.

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 3rd to the 2nd, and the 4th to the 3rd 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 – in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.