Trinity 20 - Here comes the judge

Trinity 20! Already

Readings for Sunday

Genesis. (32.22-31)

Second Letter of Paul to Timothy. (3.14 – 4.5)

Luke. (18.1-8) - The one with the woman and the judge

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a cer- tain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually com- ing.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

The brief and strange parable for today selects a fascinating case to show the efficacy of prayer and to teach the disciples the need to pray always and not lose heart. Jesus asks them in a critical and pointed question.

“When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Is he speaking to us today? He surely is!

In our text, the widow obtains her objective. She keeps badgering the judge until she gets what she wants without a husband or sons to act for her, she has to be persistent, and make a nuisance of herself, otherwise she won’t be heard. It seems that the judge doesn’t really care about justice, his job is to administer the law, and he wants some peace and quiet - no upsets to his daily routine. So he finally gives in, and does what she wants.

The characters, on the face of it are to remind us to be faithful in prayer, and persistent, even though we want to give up, we will eventually get what we need. It is the final victory of justice over apathy, through faith and prayer.

Luke the Evangelist, who most insists on the place of prayer in the life of Jesus and the disciples recounts this story for us. We are reminded of the words of Jesus ask and it will be given to you everyone who asks receives. This is a statement of faith, the profound conviction that someone is attentive to our needs, and listening to our crying out.

Prayer to God, even in the midst of adversity is the hallmark of our faithfulness it is the cornerstone of our belief. Our faith is never something that is given forever, it needs to be nurtured and encouraged to grow, and this is done by prayer and action. Both are essential, and both are difficult sometimes. Faith is a gift, but it is also a task.

In the modern world, it is easy for us to forget to pray. When we witness the terrible troubles; war and death, poverty and famine, hatred and intolerance, it is easy for us to forget to pray, and feel somehow protected from it by our own worldly cares. It was easy for the judge in the story to forget about justice, until it affected him directly wasn’t it?

So we can see the readings give us a picture of prayer, and the importance regular prayer, asking not just for ourselves and our own concerns but the concerns of the oppressed and suffering children of God throughout the world.

The letter to Timothy tells contains another significant text. Paul writes that scripture shows us the path of a life of faith; it trains us in righteousness. So that we are equipped for every good work.

If faith is a task, it involves a fundamental requirement to proclaim the word, whether the time is favourable or unfavourable.

Paul is writing from prison in Rome to Timothy. The old guard is putting things right, by encouraging the new growth in the Church, handing over before he is finally killed for his faith.

Timothy - who was converted by Paul at Ephesus is being encouraged to remind the community about the good news of Christ. He is expected to persevere and properly guide the teaching and the prayer in the face of those who would like an easy life by cobbling together all kinds of rules and dogmas.

Timothy was having a tough time if it. He was being told to correct, rebuke and encourage not just for a while, but in season and out of season. This is the part of the story when his vocation is becoming an onerous task. There is much work ahead, and he is expected to be the defender of the faith.

In a real sense, we here today are being encouraged to speak out against all that is comfortable - the easy route to faith. We are being entrusted with the plans to the kingdom of God, the kingdom of truth, mercy, peace, love and forgiveness. We are being invited to speak out against injustice and wrong, to defend the oppressed and the destitute. To proclaim KINGDOM values and not WORLDLY values to all we meet, in all we say AND in all we do. That is the task of the CHRISTIAN, that is the task of our faith.

As I wrote this sermon, I remembered a meeting with someone who acted as CHRIST to me,

Even though I get tired, I still want to be the person who does the ‘right thing’. She was saying how this task might be hopeless, because we always appear to be fighting for one thing or another and we meet opposition in the most unlikely places. She was absolutely right to tell me this, even though she too is the sort of person who is always fighting for the right thing too.

It made me even more certain that if there are two types of people in the world, those who work for what’s right, and those who don’t, I would rather be shot down in flames as a ‘doer’ rather than a ‘fence-sitter’, or more accurately, I’ll be shot down anyway because I can’t not do stuff.

It’s all in the parable anyway…..

I know what the conventional wisdom of the parable is, the widow is us and the judge is God, but just for a moment, imagine the widow in the parable is God, uncomfortably reminding us that whatever the cost we must still have JUSTICE on our mind before all else, reminding us of the work yet to do.

GOD, who seeks justice and peace; GOD, whom society has placed in an inferior place; GOD, who is never going to leave us, even though we are not listening; GOD, who is in the right.

AND perhaps we are the JUDGE could be us weighed down by worldly cares, more concerned by an easy life rather than what’s right!

Is it the voice of GOD we hear when we feel that we should do more? Is it the voice of GOD keeping the ‘doers’ doing.

In the week to come, remember that Faith is a gift, but it is also a task, and let us all as ourselves “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

London, Paris, Rome and Wilcrick...

London, Paris, Rome and Wilcrick...

As I was giving a sort of ‘Thought for the day’ on Thursday in Undy, Pope Benedict XVI was landing in the UK. He was going to have a nice cup of tea with the Queen in Holyrood.

Amidst the controversy and scandals (and one of his senior

advisors Cardinal Walter Kasper saying that the UK is like a Third World country) the POPE came to tell us that FAITH IS IMPORTANT, not just to CATHOLICS or ANGLICANS, but to everyone.

First he delivered a sermon that rounded on what he called aggressive secularism and atheism. As he travels to different venues, his speeches and sermons have become a little more complex, building on what he said in the Westminster Hall was “The importance of building on solid moral and ethical foundations”. Religion, he said, is not a “problem for the legislators to solve” but a “vital contributor to the national conversation”

Of course, he then spoke about the “increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity” and how in human terms “time is always short”, and we should concentrate our effort, the holy and the secular together in working to solve the problems of today

, war, poverty, environmental catastrophe and a hundred other different problems that face us today.

“The Church and Christianity is not a problem, it’s a benefit to society”, that was his message.

The POPE was saying that FAITH is the structure of our everyday lives whatever we might think about it. It is the antecedent of our legal and education systems, it provides a structure for how we

treat each other and how we live our lives.

He was saying that the importance of the ‘checks and balances’ of religion cannot be underestimated; a wholly secular society would be a much worse place.

This week, two things made me think about the importance of what we are doing here in church, and in the communities around us.

I had a call on my mobile phone on Thursday night, the police told me that Langstone church had been broken into and a lot of damage had been done.

When I arrived there I met a policeman who had caught two people in the church. He told me that lots of police had taken the ‘call’ and rushed to see what was happening in the church. One policeman had commented “how could people do this?” all the police in attendance agreed, similarly in the morning the Crime Scene people also felt it was not just disappointing, but despicable that a church would be desecrated in such a way. They linked damage to the church with a downward spiral of morality and the loss of ‘community’.
This is just what the Pope was saying, you might not love the church, you might never go to church, you might not have any religion at all, but somewhere deep down most people agree that it stands for something we are in danger of losing, and at the very least a social good.

Another incident made me smile; I recently met someone who told me that he didn’t believe in any religion or faith and he had his own code, which he lived by. When I enquired what it might be, he told me;

“Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that since around 1670 this saying (in its’ many forms) has been referred to as the "Golden Rule", and usually refers to a saying of Christ. In the King James Version it says

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." (Matthew 7:12, see also Luke 6:31)

The common English phrasing is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

My unsuccessful atheist friend had been living by a saying of Christ, and determining his judgments and his philosophy on it.

The Pope’s journey to the UK could have got a lot more smiles if I wrote his sermon, it also wouldn’t have been so hard to read.

Some of the media picked up on his direct comments, and not really knowing how to deal with them, they decided instead to report on women priests and homosexuality; The pace of the church in dealing with what for many is normal and everyday.

They also brought to the spotlight the awful and damaging scandals of abuse involving Catholic Priests and citing the disinterest of the church as a failure in bringing these monsters to justice.

All these things are held up by some as good reasons to control and censure the church from every aspect of society and civic life, but they are not.

They are in the main, the cries of disappointment from ordinary people who had hoped for so much more, those who had invested heavily in the church in a spiritual and physical sense only to be let down badly.

Whether Richard Dawkins, and perhaps now Stephen Hawking like it or not, the church still holds a responsibility to the world, even if it lets people down so often. As an imperfect vessel; it is still the vessel to carry the love of Christ to the world.

Clergy sometimes joke that if you have six people attending a church decide it needs to close you will have one hundred and fifty letters of complaint. Like all humour, it has the ring of truth to it.

Surrounding all our churches are communities that might not be supporting in any physical or spiritual sense, but somehow we represent something that is good, and whose loss is their loss.

We need to translate this into a real need, so that people can once again engage with the church, and come to hear the message of hope and peace, which is needed by so many in today’s Britain.

I wish the POPE well in his visit to us in the UK, I hope that he finds that we are not a ‘third world country’ in terms of spirituality.

If the last stop in his tour turns out to be this Benefice, I would like to tell him that we might not have the fantastic splendour of St. Peter’s Square to look out on each morning, we might not be surrounded by priceless art and beautiful architecture, but even in the smallest of churches with the smallest congregations, we can still ‘fighting the good fight’, trying to live by the Golden Rule and in hopeful anticipation, trying to build the Kingdom of God for those around us.

Let’s try something different!

Let’s try something different!

As the nights are drawing in and the weather seems to be turning, we can look back at a positive summer in the Benefice.

The great success of the Benefice Weekend and other events has been cause for great celebration as we have learned a little bit more about our churches, our communities, and each other. Just over a year after the creation of the Benefice, we have much to be proud of and much to look forward to as we live and learn, change and grow together in Christ.

There have been many challenges along the way too. The attendance at the Archdeacon’s visitation made it clear that people find it difficult to relate to such a large group of churches. In addition, we have heard people say that they wish they had their ‘own vicar’ once again, this isn’t an unreasonable request. We all want to feel that our voice is heard, and that someone understands what our churches are going through.

This is why the stipendiary clergy will be taking responsibility for a smaller group of churches. The Benefice remains a Rectorial Benefice, and all decisions affecting the wider church and the future will need to be made at the Benefice Council, however each church has been assigned their own ‘team vicar’ to be a first point of contact for pastoral and church issues. They will be your advocate at the clergy and wider ministry team meetings and will attempt to understand all the issues that affect your church and community.

Having made the decision to try this, we then looked at the ways in which the Benefice could be divided naturally. I will be looking after the communities of Magor, Wilcrick and Llanmartin, all physically close together comprising the churches of St. Martin’s, Llanmartin with ‘Underwood’, the beautiful church on the edge of the woods St. Mary’s, Wilcrick and the Benefice Church in Magor. The Revd. Jeremy will be looking after the churches of Undy, Redwick and Goldcliff, splitting the population centre of Magor and Undy and travelling across the levels to the historic villages on the levels. The Revd Celia will be looking after the churches of Nash and Llanwern on the edge of the City of Newport, with the equally historic churches of Bishton and Langstone serving the people who live in those communities, all within a few minutes’ drive of the Vicarage.

As part of a larger benefice we are all entitled to feel that our voice is heard however small our church may be. These changes will hopefully help us to feel involved with something good, something new, and something that, God willing reflects the love of Christ to the communities around us and the wider world.

Our non-stipendiary clergy, the Revds. Natalie and Alison will be assisting with all the usual tasks around Magor, Undy and other churches when the need arises. Our Lay Eucharistic Ministers will continue to provide a full ministry throughout the Benefice, supporting the mission and worship.

It goes without saying that your prayers and support are needed as always.

With blessings and peace,

Mark

The Revd Mark Lawson-Jones (Team Rector)

Extracts from the Sermon in Wilcrick and Undy - 5th September 2010 - Trinity 14 (Pentecost 15)

Sermon

Trinity 14 (Pentecost 15)

Year C

Luke. (14.25-33)

In a sense, there are times I believe that this reading is just for ‘me’, even though I know that my struggles are neither unique nor for Anglican Priests in general. The struggles of faith and discipleship are, in fact, for us all. There can be one guarantee, and it is that we will all have our crosses to bear.

The cost of discipleship can be great.

The last time this reading appeared, I looked more closely at the translation, it appears that the word we read as ‘hate’ is more closely akin to the word ‘value’, so we are being asked not to value those people and things higher than our calling as disciples.

You might think it’s not as bad then as it first seems, but if we are to even attempt this ‘prioritization’ of values, we will need to constantly question ourselves about the way in which we do things. How we live our lives, spend our time, support the poor and needy, even spend our money.

In all cases, can we say that being a Christian has made a difference in our lives?

That, of course, is the real cost, the understanding that signing up to being a Christian has a cost that can’t be paid up front or in full, but is slowly repaid on a day-to-day basis.

The term, ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ was the title of a book written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and in the first two chapters he deals with the questions the Gospel reading throws up for us today.

The first chapter is entitled “Costly Grace” and considers the difference between “Cheap Grace” and “Costly Grace”, it considers this if the ‘grace’ of God is worth anything, it is something that we need, we seek out and value every day; Bonhoeffer wrote;

"cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."

"costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

The second chapter “The Cost of Discipleship” reminds us that this journey will inevitably bring us into conflict with those around us, sometimes even our family and friends.

When Bonhoeffer dared to criticize the ‘cultural Christianity’ in Hitler’s Germany that ignored the plight of those suffering by legalism and formality, he called it ‘religionless Christianity’, together with Martin Niemoller and the other founders of the ‘Confessing Church’ he was arrested for helping Jews escape to Switzerland. When he was released friends got him out of Germany and he travelled to America – he eventually travelled to England, but here he felt that he could not be actively involved in rebuilding the church after the war if he hadn’t been involved with sharing the sufferings of the people during the war, so against the advice of his friends he returned to Germany.

On April the 5^th 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in a series of prisons and concentration camps. In prison he ministered to the sick and the dying, the lost and the anxious. In 1944 there was an attempt to liberate him, but he chose to stay in prison so as not to endanger the lives of others.

Bonhoeffer was concerned that a church led by the demands of the secular state, and without its’ own voice is no church at all. He was convinced that, if necessary, a Christian would even have to offer his life for this.

On 9^th April 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed in Flossenberg Concentration Camp, shortly before its’ liberation.

Paul says in his letter to the Romans “Do not be conformed to the ways of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.

As we reflect today on the stark statement from the Gospel about only serving one vision and one God, we can be reassured in some way by the words of the very first Psalm (which is one NOT ascribed to King David) starts the ball rolling on this mammoth religious song. It give us the comfort to believe that if we, like Bonhoeffer, stand up for what is right, then we will be upheld in that by God himself;

I’ll read it to finish the sermon, but before I do, may God bless you all as you continue to discover the cost of your own discipleship, and may you take great strides forward in finding yourself in relation to God.

Psalm 1 KJV

1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Mark Lawson-Jones

Youtube Video about Bonhoeffer

Extracts from the sermon delivered at the Benefice United Service

29th August 2010

Gospel Text: Luke 14:1,7-14

I’ve had a few weeks off, the first week I spent with the Air Training Corps as a Chaplain on an RAF station in Yorkshire, then I had a couple of weeks hanging around with the family. I think it’s called a “staycation”, it was very enjoyable, and reminded me of how lovely this part of Wales is.

Refreshed and reinvigorated, revived and revved up, I’m back for the next chapter of Church in the 21^st century.

The reading tells us that...

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of the leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.

Jesus is hob-nobbing with the religious glitterati of the day. He’s been invited to the home of a leading Pharisee for the Sabbath meal. Jesus has already nearly broken up the party by healing a man afflicted with oedema (or dropsy as it used to be called).

(it’s the bit of the Gospel we didn’t have between verse 2 and 6) I can imagine the scene, it was probably the equivalent of turning up to a country mansion in jeans and a tee-shirt, driving across the croquet lawn in your land rover and letting your dog chase the swans.

They say to Jesus, “Steady on old boy, you’re not supposed to be healing on the Sabbath, it’s just not cricket” (it’s my new translation….), Jesus actually says (and this IS in the NIV translation)

If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?

I can imagine awkward silence, as they look around at each other.

For the Pharisees, the act of eating a meal together was just like praying together. The two activities had rules and ritual.

In the silence, Jesus notices that people had been vying for positions of honour at the dinner, presumably closest to the host or the guest of honour. Luke doesn’t tell us if Jesus was the guest of honour, but even if he was, he quickly went down the rankings as he used the opportunity to teach the assembled guests about manners and the Kingdom of God.

Then he turns on the host and gives him a further lecture about whom he ought to have invited to dinner. What a party! What a guest!

Jesus is telling the host that he should have invited the marginalized, the poor and the outcast. This, for Jesus, isn’t a matter of party political position, it’s not a matter of economic theory or social philosophy. It isn’t even a matter of whether he is or isn’t a follower, it’s just bad manners not to do so.

After the host and the guests have chosen to point out that in their book it’s bad manners to heal on the Sabbath, so Jesus points out that in the same book, and in life, it’s really bad manners not to consider those with less in all situations.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to the economic arguments for austerity and caution in the economy, I’ve heard about the wide-ranging cuts that need to be made and I’ve heard who is going to suffer the most. I’ve been really worrying about those who have the least, as benefits are squeezed and cuts to pubic services start to bite.

I can hear Jesus saying “Whether you are a follower or not, to fail to put the poor at the top of your list is not just misguided, it’s bad manners”, he is asking us all, “who are we inviting to the party”.

If you have difficulty in thinking about this issue as ‘bad manners’ you could always think of it as ‘humility’.

Now I don’t mind telling you that I had a problem with the whole ‘humility’ thing, people laugh when I say that. The difficulty is that the people who tell me that being ‘humble’ is important are the people who are nothing of the sort.

I always wondered how we were supposed to be ‘humble’ and how this really helped build the kingdom, feed the poor and enable the disenfranchised, just by us being meek and modest (part of the definition of being ‘humble’), I also didn’t see Jesus being particularly humble, especially not in this reading today. That was, until I heard the definition of humility from Alcoholics Anonymous;

Alcoholics Anonymous defines humility this way:

Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

It is thinking of yourself less."

Exactly what Jesus was talking about at dinner with the Pharisees.

Do we live as if we want to be an inviting people?

Do we speak inviting words?

Do we have inviting attitudes?

Do we invite others to the feast, where they can meet Christ in the bread and the wine?

Do we really, through our words and actions bring others to faith?

Feast of St. James (and the retirement of Archbishop Desmond Tutu)

In the Christian calendar, every few months a ‘Saint’s Day’ falls on a Sunday, when this happens the readings change from the usual cycle and we think about the impact the person has had on the faith.

I like to think of ‘Saints’ as ‘superheroes’ of the faith, people who have managed to walk closely with God, and as a result, secure our freedom to worship without fear.

St. James is an interesting figure however. It is said that his relics lie in the great pilgrimage church of Santiago de Compostella, he was the hero of generations of crusading Spanish soldiers, who would cry “Santiago y cierra Espana”, St James and strike for Spain!

The origins of this tradition went back to the story that St. James appeared as a great warrior in the year 844, helping the Christian Army defeat the Moors , led by the Emir of Cordoba.

James is shown throughout history in art as a warrior on a white charger, ghostly in his appearance and cheerfully wielding a sword, hacking down the enemies of Spain.

Moving on a few centuries from the battle in Cordoba, we have the Spanish Inquisition and the forced conversion to Christianity of Jews and Muslims alike. Torture and death being an integral part of this particular episode in the history of our faith, it’s not surprising that we don’t talk about this too much.

St. James the great, the Moor Killer or Matamoros in Spanish myth and legend represents the struggle between control and freedom. What is ‘faith’ worth if there is no freewill or choice? Surely the most valuable thing we have is our faith, and the most valuable thing in our faith is that fact that it sets us free. It’s doesn’t enslave us.

In the Gospel reading this morning we have an interesting event. The mother of the Sons of Zebedee (a James and John) is asking Jesus for preferential treatment for her sons. “Lord, can they sit on your left and right hand?”.

She wants earthly guarantees in a heavenly way, she wants to be close to the seat of power, and perhaps without the knowledge of Mr. Zebedee, she approaches Jesus with this request.

Jesus’ response is typically mystical; he addresses the boys, James and John, together. He tells them that they don’t know what they are asking, then he closes the matter by saying that it isn’t his job to decide who sits where, it is God’s job.

The struggle between control and freedom is here too! Mrs Zebedee wants control from the very man who has given them freedom. Freedom from the ways of the world, the challenges of conforming to the laws of the day, even the fact that Mrs. Zebedee is asking questions of the Rabbi is testimony to the freedom that Jesus has brought her and her family, but still she wants to squeeze them back into the same old format of earthly power and authority.

Beware of being squeezed into the mould everyone expects you to be in. Be unpredictable to the people obsessed by the ways of the world and remember that true greatness is shown by humility, not pride.

Yesterday it was announced that Archbishop Desmond Tutu at 78 is about to withdraw from public life after four decades in the forefront of it. The BBC said that “he has never been known to mince his words”, I would like to add, and “through his humility he has shown the power of the Holy Spirit working in him”.

In the struggle against apartheid he was a voice to the Christian world, a seemingly unstoppable and invincible voice.

Even though Robert Mugabe once called him “evil”, I think he is a great example of holding the tension of control and freedom in balance, a man of true greatness.

Welcomed into the Church he was inevitably thrown into the political spotlight, but he always took the time to make it clear that his faith was his motivation not politics.

On the subject of apartheid, he said;

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of human rights - January 1985

Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity - October 1984

On justice, he said

Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion - January 2000

On fashion – he criticized Nelson Mandela’s dress, he said….

His sartorial taste is the pits!

He's such a lovely guy, but he was nasty to me when I publicly commented on it. He said the critique was pretty amusing coming from a man who wears a dress - October 2006

On winning the Nobel Peace Prize

A child asked him why he had won it, he said

"It's very easy, you just need three things - you must have an easy name, like Tutu for example, you must have a large nose and you must have sexy legs." - July 2009

In 2007 however, he gave his most thoughtful analysis on uniting the nation. He said;

This is something that can unite us.

We have 11 different official languages but only one word for the wonderful institution of braai (barbecue): in Xhosa, English, Afrikaans, whatever - September 2007

True greatness is shown by humility, not pride. This was powerfully demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, who told His ambitious disciples: “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:26-28).

There is a little verse that says…

Find out what God would have you do,
And do that little well;
For what is great and what is small
The Lord alone can tell. —Anon.

Still today, pilgrims walk the way to the shrine of St. James, for many it is a new way of travelling. They pray for a better future where there is no slavery or war, torture or executions. In humility and patience they march, many of them in a foreign land as a symbol of Christian identity.

In a way, they are as dangerous and rebellious as the crusaders who followed St. James in the past – these however are dangerous because as they march on their pilgrimage, they don’t need the world and it’s all too earthly promises because they have their eyes to heavenly things – service and freedom.

God bless you in your endeavours to be dangerous and rebellious in the name of him who came not to be served but to serve.

Trinity 7

Pentecost 8

Year C

+ May I speak in the name of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

Mary and Martha

I don’t know if any of you have watched the comedy drama ‘Rev’ on the television recently… As the title suggests its about a Vicar working in the East End of London with a very small congregation – I was a bit suspicious about watching it, when someone religious turns up on telly they are usually strange or dangerous. Dot Cotton in Eastenders seemed bad enough until the bloke who is a part time minister/part time serial killer turned up.

It was with a degree of trepidation that I turned the computer on and watched an episode of ‘Rev’ – I’m a week or so behind….

Last week the episode had another church coming in to use the parish church building – it was ‘all singing all dancing’ TV screens, rappers and a ‘personality’ running the show. The Church was packed and lots of money was collected – lots of which was donated back to the usual church and its’ congregation.

In the older congregation there were all sorts of characters, and they didn’t all really fit in to the ‘new’ service. One of them did something to upset one of the helpers in the new congregation and the minister of the new congregation insisted that he be excluded from the Church.

The Vicar refused and the Archdeacon agreed – they pointed out that nobody could be excluded from the Church… It is open to all – and that sometimes mean people who are very different from those we would choose to spend time with…

At this stage I was waiting for the Vicar to turn out to have a dark sinister secret that no one knew about…but it didn’t happen….thankfully.

Whilst this was an episode of a comedy programme there were all kinds of realistic incidents, this particular episode seemed to relate well to the readings we have today.

In the Gospel the reported event in the lives of Mary and Martha is an important one, we have the busy Martha, distracted by her many tasks, trying to make things perfect, and we have Mary, who would rather choose to sit at the feet of Jesus, just listening.

It isn’t as easy to split their tasks up by saying it’s all about faith and works, Mary having faith without works and Martha having work without faith, because that does a great disservice to the them as people. It’s not a case of two women getting it completely wrong in two different ways.

I think it’s a lesson to us all, as are all the recorded events, parables and allegories in the Bible. They are all there for a reason. This lesson, once again, has a wide-ranging and deep message. The thing about Mary and Martha is that Martha was so busy ‘doing the right thing’ in the sight of God she forgot to check what ‘God’ actually wanted. God incarnate is sat on her sofa, and she still knew best – but it was hardly her fault.

The Pharisees and the Scribes and the religious officials of the day couldn’t see Jesus as the Son of God either, because they were too busy dealing with the day-to-day business of what they felt was ‘God’s work’ even when he was hanging on the cross and all the prophesies were being fulfilled, they couldn’t see the real event that was happening.

Abraham in the reading from Genesis is sat at the doorway to his tent in the heat of the day, and God talks to him. St. Paul in the letter to the Colossians talks about his mission to ‘make Christ known’ he who is the ‘image of the invisible God’, so that we can all be ‘mature in Christ’. What a fantastic phrase and thought. To be growing towards a maturity in Christ. Taken together, we could say that the readings are inviting us to grow more mature in Christ by waiting for him to speak to us in the quiet, in the peace and in the calm. It’s only then can we actually say we are doing his work.

The first image was that of the apparently incredibly successful Church – lots of people came, most of them were young too. I’m sure they were learning about God, the stories of the Bible and even how we are expected to live. But faced with a problem, faced with someone who didn’t actually want to do things their way, they couldn’t cope with it – the other person had to be wrong.

Lots of people believe that their way is the right way, and excluding others, questioning the motives and integrity of others – as the Archdeacon in the series pointed out, we can exclude nobody from our Churches however different they may be… And the fact is that it’s not our place to be judge.

The second image was of an apparently unsuccessful Church, with money problems and a small congregation – but for all the faults associated with it, it was this group, this Church, that best understood Jesus’ command to love their neighbour… they accepted everyone just as they are. Here is Mary, patiently waiting on God and then having a clearer understanding of what makes success, what makes us mature in Christ.

What is our vision then? Is it to build a church on strict rules and regulations that excludes people from our worship and fellowship? Is it a vision to mould people to be like us, because we are always right? Or is our vision to join with everyone in the kingdom of God – because the reality is that as we seek to do our bit to build the kingdom of God, so we will face challenges as to the type of people we meet… and welcome…

Here we go again worrying about the churches – even during the sermon, I’ve forgotten to think about the man. Well, a woman called Barbara Johnson wrote a little parable that is a perfect commentary – it tells us a lot about the man in the episode of ‘Rev’ who found himself outcast in his church, by people who didn’t find him quite right.

A man fell into a pit and couldn't get himself out.

A subjective person came along and said, "I feel for you down there."

An objective person came along and said, "It's logical that someone would fall down there."

A Pharisee said, "Only bad people fall into a pit."

A mathematician calculated how he fell into the pit.

A news reporter wanted an exclusive story on his pit.

A fundamentalist said, "You deserve your pit."

A tax inspector asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.

A self-pitying person said, "You haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit."

A charismatic said, "Just confess that you're not in a pit."

An optimist said, "Things could be worse."

A pessimist said, "Things will get worse."

Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit!

That is what Jesus does, and that is what he calls us to do… AMEN

Rev Mark Lawson-Jones

2010