A story of role reversal - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 16: 19 - 31

When I conduct weddings, I am often asked for the hymn, “All things bright and beautiful.” Whenever this happens, I always request the couple to ensure that one of the original verses is not on the hymn sheet. It is a verse which thankfully is no longer in any of the hymn books that we use. It is the verse which goes like this;

“The rich man at his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high or lowly
And ordered their estate.”

What nonsense! And yet it was sung in churches not that long ago. And certainly, those words represent the orthodox religious beliefs at the time of Jesus.

And yet Jesus blows the idea that social class is ordained by God completely out of the water. And nowhere does he do this more powerfully than with the story of a rich man whom we often call Dives which is the Latin for “rich” and Lazarus.

The story that Jesus told was probably a reworking of similar stories which were told at his time. And yet amidst what would have been familiar to his listeners, Jesus provides his own rather unique spin. We are less familiar with the similar stories and so we can approach it with minds and hearts that are hopefully open to the insights that Jesus would wish to transmit to us.

And so to the characters. Let us first look at the rich man, Dives. And rich he most certainly was. After all he dressed in purple robes which were the most expensive garments, normally associated with the aristocratic elite from whom the Sadducces came. These were people who aside from religious beliefs to which I shall return later, devoted themselves to modelling their lifestyles on the Roman elite with whom they were all too willing collaborators. And more than that he wore busos which is the Hebrew for a particularly expensive underwear, that which today we would describe as designer underwear.

Not only did he dress to the nines every day but every day was a feast day for him. Each and every day he ate the finest foods and so each Sabbath Day his desires would find their gratification by requiring servants to miss out on the rest requirement of the Sabbath which was so important to the Jewish people.

So before us we have one of the idle rich living the life of Riley, enjoying an obscenely rich lifestyle.

Now let’s turn and look at the other character, Lazarus. His name means “God helps.” But God’s help seems to be far removed from his experience in life. After all, Lazarus is an impoverished beggar. He is totally dependent on others. And like many of those who suffer from poverty, he carried the evidence of his deprivations, in his case through the sores that covered him. But he had one reason for hope. The translation that we use misses that reason for hope but other translations especially from Arabic and Syrian versions of the gospels include it, namely that he didn’t simply lie at the gate of the Dives. Instead he was laid at the gate. This would imply that he had friends who would bring him to that gate day by day. Why? Because only this Dives had the necessary resources to adequately help Lazarus.

Now at this point we need to take care to avoid a dangerous and simplistic conclusion. Too often this story is used to back a view that poor people are good and rich people are bad. Of course, there may be cases that back such an interpretation but take care for such an interpretation can lead us on a road to despair. For on a global basis, we are the rich. Those of you who are on the internet can look up a site called Global Rich List and I suspect that most people here would be in the top 5% whether you feel rich or not. I go further and remind you that being affluent just as it is not a sign that you are favoured by God, is also not something that means you should be judged harshly. For if we had turned to today’s reading from the New Testament letters, we would have found that contrary to ignorant folklore, it is not said that money is the root of all evil but that;

“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

Do you get the difference? It is a vital difference if we are to understand where our rich man goes wrong.

Back to the story that Jesus told and we find a shocking indifference to the sufferings of Lazarus on the part of Dives. From the conversation that he has with Abraham, he is aware of Lazarus having been at his gate. He even knows the name of Lazarus but he has been callously indifferent to the sufferings of a nearby man at the same times as he has indulged his own fanciful whims. Indeed such has been the level of his indifference to the sufferings of Lazarus that he compares unfavourably with his own dogs.

Let’s for a moment think of these dogs. Many of us today think of dogs as loveable creatures who are man’s best friend. But that is not how it was in Palestine at the time of Jesus. For the traditions of Palestine are that dogs were regarded as unclean, almost as unclean as pigs. A rich man keeping dogs would not have them to pamper and to walk as might be the case today. No, their purpose would have been to serve as guard dogs that protected his property. Today, we contemplate the problems caused by dangerous dogs but this was a society in which only dangerous dogs were of any use. And such dogs would only be safely approached by those who were their handlers.

It fascinates me that Dives allowed his dogs to wonder down to where Lazarus lay at the gate. It seems yet further evidence that this Dives felt no duty of care to the suffering man at the gate. And yet these attack dogs did so much more for Lazarus than was managed by their owner. They licked his wounds and of course given that the saliva from the dog is sterile, they probably helped to bring a soothing and a healing to the wounds of Lazarus.

What a scandal! A rich man outdone in compassion by wild attack dogs. But that is part of the problem. Our Dives fails to see the reality of shred humanity with Lazarus. He sees his prosperity as putting himself on a higher level than that of a down and out like Lazarus. Even as he look up to Abraham, he still cannot see Lazarus as an equal but as a skivvy who could bring refreshment to him and be sent with a message of warning to his brothers. Even though their fortunes have been reversed, he still sees Lazarus not as a an equal but as one who should still know his place at the bottom of the pile. Far from seeking the forgiveness of Lazarus for the ways in which he has failed him, this Dives remains stuck in his self centredness and indifference to suffering other than that which is now his lot. In contrast, is it not amazing that Lazarus, unlike similar characters in parallel stories that Jesus would have known, remains quiet and makes no demand for vengeance?

So what does Jesus seek to tell us through this story. Often I have heard this story used by preachers as a warning concerning the afterlife. I think that this is stretching things somewhat. Such an interpretation fails to adequately engage with the literary genre somewhat. Furthermore, it creates a blasphemous picture of a God presiding over a regime of torture. And yet, the question of judgement cannot be totally ignored. You see, Sadducees like Dives had no belief in an afterlife or any form of judgement. And so they display the outlook of those who feel that you can live for yourself without any degree of accountability. And because he felt unaccountable to God or indeed anyone else, Dives felt himself free to indulge himself while just a short distance away, a man lay suffering whose plight he could have considerably eased. What a warning of what we can become when we lose sight of our accountability to God.

So how do we live as those who are accountable to God?

Firstly, we need to avoid the cheap doctrines that see the unfairness of life as being about God’s judgement on others. This is so in the case of individual human suffering and it is so when nations suffer calamities. God does not inflict these things on people. On the contrary, God weeps with those in pain and urges us to respond with compassion.

Secondly, we are each called upon to exercise compassion. Possessions and the things we cling to in our lives should not get in the way. The sin of Dives was not his wealth but the ways in which he allowed it to dehumanise him. The late Pope John Paul 11 put it well in saying;

“The rich man was condemned because he did not pay attention to the other man, because he failed to take notice of Lazarus, the person who sat at his door and who longed to eat the scraps from his table. Nowhere does Christ condemn the mere possessions of earthly goods as such. Instead, he pronounces very harsh words against those who use their possessions in a selfish way, without paying attention to the needs of others.”

And thirdly, we are called to be sensitive to need that is close at hand. For within our own community, there is a number of people who have an impoverished experience of life. Jesus encourages us to avoid the sin of Dives in being desensitivised to such places of suffering. But now, because of the devoplment of communications media, we are able to be aware of suffering that is far away from us geographically and lie it or not, we become connected to every suffering person. Indeed, this is a parable that challenges indifference to suffering not just on an individual level but challenges us at the level of our fractured nation and indeed, it can be a parable that speaks into the division in our world between nations of wealth, however badly distributed that wealth might be, and the countries of the South whose path to development is burdened by debt. And as we dare to expand the scope of this parable, we begin to see that it is a parable which raises issues not just of charity but also of justice. For who can be other than shocked to learn that the nation which spends most on weaponry in our world is also a nation in which we have heard of a 12 year old boy dying because his mother lacked the insurance or financial resources to get treatment for what was at first a dental problem. And now an apology of a President is to veto the very measures that might save the lives of other such children.

You see, this parable tells us that Jesus sees us all as having responsibility for those who suffer. So much can be done by charity but policy of governments is also relevant.

It is likely that we shall soon be entering a General Election. No party broadcasts will ever come from this pulpit. But I encourage you to do but one thing. Look for the causes of suffering be they local or global. And then, don’t do a Dives and shut your eyes. Ask what you can personally do to help. And also ask and ask with persistence those who would seek to represent you, how they will seek policies that help those whose need is greatest.


This sermon was preached at Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday September 30th 2007

With gratitude to God - Harvest Thanksgiving

John 6: 24 - 35

A while ago I read of a painting which is called “Look Up.” It apparently depicts a large city church. In front of the church people are milling around busily. But on the side of the church about ten feet off the pavement is a sign. It is one of those signs that has white on black letters that can be removed when appropriate. This sign tells the time of the services and the sermon title. In front of the church a priest is stood on the pavement whilst a church official is on a ladder next to the sign. Clearly he has just changed the sermon title. Now it proclaims “Sunday’s Sermon: ‘Look Up!”

Why should anyone bother to paint such a picture? The clue is that all the people seem to be doing the opposite of what is written. They are looking down, be they people getting on with the tasks of life or the official looking down at the priest in search of approval. Only the priest is looking up.

This evening, we come to the conclusion of our Harvest Thanksgiving celebrations. We have celebrated the wonder of the Harvest and around us we see an array of the good gifts in which we rejoice at this season. And yet is there not a danger that we will be as those in the painting, looking down rather than up, wondering at the gifts yet losing sight of the giver?

If so, we are hardly the first. It was so with those who were fed in that story of the feeding of the 5,000. Having filled their bellies, they give Jesus no rest. He has gone away in search of rest but rest is what he will not have for the crowd sets off in search of him. And ultimately they find him.

Jesus would seem to know that their motives are somewhat selfish;

“Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

It’s the material gifts that have got them excited. But now Jesus seeks to point them to greater gifts still, the spiritual gifts that he himself embodies;

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

In this we are pointed to the importance of being in relationship with God. We owe our very beings to God. God offers to be a presence in the experiences of our lives and through the Spirit enables us to grow that we might realise more and more what it means to live as those privileged to have been created in the image of God.

And the spiritual gifts of God cannot be quantified visually as can the Harvest here this evening. God’s blessings, you see are not restricted to the times when we can see good things happening to us. Turn for a moment to that great Lutheran hymn, “Now thank we all our God.” Hear these words;

Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”

Words written against a background of material blessings and prosperity? Certainly not! For this hymn was written against the background of the 30 Years War. Its writer, Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran minister in the city of Eilenburg. As warfare raged, a steady stream of refugees seeking asylum entered its gates. But here was no safety for the Swedish army surrounded the city and famine and plague were rampant. Eight hundred homes were destroyed and people began to die. The stream of funerals put a constant strain upon the clergy and they too began to die. Eventually Rinkart was the only priest left, burying some fifty people a day.. Eventually the siege ended after Rinkart had pleaded for the Swedes to show mercy. At this time of deliverance, Rinkart write his great hymn.

Rinkart knew something of the treasures of God. He knew that God is not just for the good times but also for the bad times. Circumstances did not dictate to his understanding of God’s goodness. Not even the Harvest was necessary to convince him of God’s unfailing goodness.

This evening as we gaze at the fruits of the Harvest, they do indeed serve as a pointer to God’s goodness. But as the painting reminds us, gazing at the gift is not enough. We, too, need to lift up our heads to look up to the one who is the giver of all good things, whose gifts are beyond number or the ability of our eyes to appreciate. Rejoice in the gifts by all mean but then look up to the giver.

Look up!


This sermon was preached at the closing service of Harvest Thanksgiving at Alwington Methodist Church on Tuesday 25th September 2007

Opening illustration comes from a sermon by Alex Stevenson

An unjust steward and unconventional grace - Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 16: 1 - 13

What a story! A story in which Jesus seems to applaud what on the face of it was a very shady steward indeed. And not surprisingly we are left uncomfortable for we have associated Jesus with such sterling qualities as honesty and integrity.

We can easily identify with St Augustine in his observation;

“I can’t believe that this story came from the lips of our Lord.”

And so it is that down through the ages, this has become probably the most hotly debated of the parables of Jesus. Interpretations have included the idea that this is an example story. One version of this is that Jesus is suggesting that his disciples should imitate the actions of the dishonest manager. An easy conclusion to come to from a first reading of the parable yet a conclusion that is surely repugnant and inconsistent with all that we know of Jesus.

Another interpretation based on this parable as an example story is that Jesus is encouraging his followers to be shrewd like the steward was in his use of possessions even though the possessions are not his to control. Less repugnant for surely there is much virtue in shrewdness but still inadequate for such an interpretation could be used for example to defend Robert Maxwell’s raiding of the pension funds of his employees in a vain effort to hold his commercial empire together.

So it seems that we would do better to see this as a parable told by Jesus to explain something about the Kingdom of God. But first of all, we need to be clear as to how we seek to interpret parables. A real temptation is to see them as allegories in which each character represents someone or something. Please take care to discard that way of thinking because in the main the parables of Jesus were quite simply not allegories. To suggest that they are is to ignore the intentions of Jesus and accordingly to arrive at what can only be seen as distorted conclusions.

An example of this is the character of the landowner in this parable. He is an absentee landlord who lives in luxury whilst enjoying the fruits of the efforts of those who work on the land. Such landlords were well known in Palestine at the time of Jesus - cold grasping profiteers. The listeners to Jesus and the first reader of Luke’s Gospel would recognise the type at once.

Now an allegorical interpretation of this parable would see the landlord as representing God. And here, we encounter a massive problem. For God is absolutely nothing like the landlord whose only purpose in engagement is to punish. The sort of nonsense that sees God as rather like the big foot which comes down on little people in the old Monty Python introduction, is a total misrepresentation of God. God is not a distant ogre . On the contrary God has been lovingly involved with the struggles of humanity from the beginning of time. Far from being absent, we see God present in the journey of the people of Israel. And in Christ, we see not a departure but God entering into human experience in a way that shows us the very real loving and caring nature of God. No greater nonsense exists that that which views God as severe and harshly judgemental whilst somehow the Son is welcoming and loving. Jesus reveals to us the nature of the Father and to separate Jesus from God the Father is indefensible theology which serves only to deny the essential truth that God is three in one.

Anyhow let’s get back to our parable. News reaches the absentee landowner that the steward is making a right hash of his job. The landowner’s unearned income and his capital are being squandered and so the landowner decides to dismiss the steward. No longer can the steward act for his former boss. But things are even worse than we might at first appreciate. For this steward is short of friends to help him in his time of crisis. After all why should the nearby farmers help him when he has by working for the landowner allied himself with a system that was rooted in exploitation, a system which was at that time driving many farmers in the direction of poverty and dependence on the likes of the landowner.

And so, the steward begins to think creatively. He gathers together the farmers who owed the landlord money and he begins to reduce the debts that they owed to the landlord. In this, he rather keeps the farmers in the dark. He doesn’t tell them that he has been fired. Neither does he tell them that he has been given no authority to reduce these debts.

We are not told how the local farmers reacted but given the struggles that many of them would have endured to keep themselves and their families going on the land, we can only imagine that delight would have entered their souls. And possibly, very probably, there would have been something of a change in how they saw the landlord. I would think that they would be feeling very grateful, even grateful enough to give the landlord the mother of all greetings when next he came to visit to collect his debts..

And certainly, that would put the landlord in a qaundry. How could he not enjoy the change in how he was perceived - a case from zero to hero! What could he now do? He could say it was all a mistake in which case he would be lucky to get out with his life. Or he could take the applause and the credit for the actions of the steward. Well, as we know he takes the second option and as a result, we find him commending the steward whom any accountant would tell you, had done the landlord wrong.

So what are we to make of what has happened? Look at the steward. From a legal point of view, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He is guilty of a breach of trust against his employer. Oh sure, we might argue that his actions have had moral benefits. He has helped those whose need was greatest. And some of us would contend that there are times when an illegality can be defended on grounds of morality. But let’s be clear. This is no Mother Theresa. He may have done good through his illegality but his real motive has not been the welfare of needy farmers about whom he had not previously cared. His motive has been quite simply about his own self interest. The act of forcing generosity upon his former employer, has been about his plotting to get himself a place in society. He has been about self interest and the rest is to adapt a phrase from the US military “collateral benefit.”

And yet it has been argued by Robert Farrar Capon amongst others that the unjust steward is a Christ figure in this story. At first, this notion strikes us as distinctly blasphemous and there are of course dangers in taking this argument too far. But look and you will see that there are indeed some connections.

The first of these is that respectability is by no means everything. Nobody can say that the steward is respectable. After all he has been dismissed by his employer because of the poor quality of his stewardship. He has squandered the property. And now he has behaved in a somewhat squalid manner in order to protect his own interests. Now, while I wouldn’t wish to equate the conduct of Jesus with this man, it is undeniable that there were many amongst the religious leaders and possibly beyond, who felt that Jesus was anything but respectable. After all, the type of company he kept was anything but respectable. Time and again, he was criticised because he spent time with “”Sinners” and tax collectors, the very people whose company gave you a bad name. And then there were the times when he failed to keep the ritual law of Israel, the times when he behaved in a scandalous way on the Sabbath. No respectability there at all! And of course, this would be proven with his dying a criminal’s death upon the cross.

But just as Jesus and the unjust steward are short on respectability, is there not here a reminder that sometimes we place far too much emphasis upon respectability. Respectability does not liberate people as demonstrated by the unjust steward and Jesus. Life, status, success and winning are the things that matter to respectability. Oh we need more! We need grace and you won’t find a grace that liberates in respectability.

The second of these connections is that both offer a forgiveness. Poor as his motives would seem to have been, the unjust steward offers a forgiving of the debts that virtually enslaved many a farmer, debts that were rooted in a cruel economic system. With Jesus, the forgiveness that we are offered is the forgiveness of sins which facilitates a harmony with God. But for Jesus, forgiveness is about more than just the spiritual. It is also about the physical. Look to Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer and you find;

“And forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”

And if you look to the Greek, you can clearly find that the words used of our forgiving clearly refer to monetary debt.

And is that not so contemporary to our world? For the supposed economic miracle of our country is built on the sinking sands of ever increasing levels of personal indebtedness whilst across so much of the world, debt levels serve not just to deny education and health care but to literally kill.

How relevant that Jesus like the unjust steward offers us a release from the past, a forgiveness, a writing off, that enables us to experience life with abundance.

And thirdly, like the unjust steward, Jesus experiences the very worst that there is and rebounds to the good of others. For the steward this is shown in experiencing the dole, except in those days there was no dole. He has experienced the real prospect of lonely penury and yet he rebounds and others share in the good news of his rebounding through the cancellation of debts.

Jesus experiences public torture and death on a cross yet his story also does not end. Resurrection bring him back to his followers and all who have followed on from the, And the consequence of God’s Yes to Jesus which is seen in resurrection, is to enable us to be able to have a closer relationship with god than we could have envisaged otherwise. As with the steward, the raising of Jesus brings a new hope into the world.

So “Unjust Steward Sunday” is a Sunday when we encounter the most perplexing of parables. But within that parable, we are able to see displayed something of the unconventional grace that God in Christ offers to the world.


This sermon was preached at Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday 23rd September 2007

What's wrong with being number two? A non lectionary sermon

Mark 9: 30 - 37

It’s 1979 and a student basketball game is under away. Amongst those watching are Mitch Albom and sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz. As the crowd get excited, they begin to shout;

“We’re number one.”

Morrie looks puzzled before he rises and yells out;

“What’s wrong with being number two”

As astounded faces look in his direction, Morrie sits down with a triumphant smile upon his face.

Morrie Schwartz represents quite a contrast with my childhood hero, Muhammad Ali. Who can forget that boast which became so famous;

“I am the greatest.”

And I guess in those epic battles of the ring with the likes of Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, he proved that he was the greatest in terms of heavy weight boxing.

The closest followers of Jesus seem to have been closer to Muhammad Ali’s way of seeing greatness than that of Morrie Schwartz. For having heard Jesus talking of his imminent suffering and death, they become embroiled in an argument as to which of them was the greatest of their number. It was a low moment for a group of men who saw in Jesus a path to power and privilege. Indeed even after Jesus here takes the opportunity to challenge this way of seeing things, James and John will approach him with a request to have the most important positions in Christ’s Kingdom. Oh no, climbing the greasy pole is no invention of "Yes Minister" or even of the 20th Century.

But of course, Christianity has throughout its history all too often been corrupted by those who see it as a mean of power. Within 300 years of Christ, a bloodstained Emperor of Rome named Constantine will have won a great battle at Milvian Bridge claiming that before the battle a Christian cross had been superimposed upon the Sun and that he had experienced the words which translated into English read;

“In this sign, Conquer!”

And with this came what was in effect a bloodless takeover of Christianity which brought a Christianity that was linked with political, military, economic and patriarchal power, a Christianity in which the priests of the church slipped further and further away from the vision of Jesus into becoming the soulless pourers of holy water upon the powerful, whose patronage now held them in an all too willing embrace. And today, we still struggle to shake that deadly embrace off.

Back to our Gospel reading. Jesus clearly has work to do. In the first place, he needs to give his disciples an understanding of what it is to be team players. Competitive individualism is hardly compatible with a vision of these men working together to change the world. Sports fans, if not Roman Abromovitch, will know that in team sports, what is needed is not so much a collection of people with outstanding talents as a collection of people who can gell together to maximum effect. The challenge is to make use of a diversity of talents and gifts.

But more than that, he needs to get across the value of all that exists, within the Kingdom of God. And it is with this intent that Jesus takes a child in his arms to make his point.

Nowadays, we like to think we are child friendly. We talk about ensuring a good childhood for our children. At times like Christmas, we are keen to put them at the centre of the festivities. Of course, the sentiment and the reality are often far apart but at least we talk the talk even if our toleration of child poverty or wars in which children lose their dreams if not their lives, suggest that we fail to walk the walk. But at the time of Jesus, children in many cultures were to all intents and purposes non persons, abandoned at birth if the parents lacked means or the child was a girl where girls were not wanted. And in Palestine itself, children were kept well and truly out of the public space.

So when Jesus chose to teach the disciples a lesson by picking up a child and saying;

“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me”;

he was making no sentimental gesture. Instead he was scandalising his listeners by telling them that in his Kingdom, value is found by welcoming not those in fine array but those who are the most powerless people of all. And that is why there is no Christianity that can treat the poor, the marginalized,the disgraced, the asylum seeker or the woman who is battered and abused, as anything other than as the precious jewels of God. For here is the Gospel which turns our understanding of the world upside down by proclaiming a new order in which there are no “nobodies,” but only “somebodies.” And that is why authentic Christianity inevitably finds itself at loggerheads with the systems of power that seek to dominate and which all too often dehumanise those who are left at the bottom of the pile.

But as well as a new social order and way of seeing peoples’ value, Christianity points us to a new way of living and being. Hear these precious words from Jesus;

“Whoever wants to be first but be last of all and a servant of all.”

No space here for the desire to dominate others out of a perceived position of strength. No space here to dream of a Christian church regaining the dominant power of its distorted cousin, Christendom in which oppression was often sanctioned by a blasphemous use of the name of Christ. Instead all that is called for is a discipleship that is expressed in servanthood to others. For to follow the way of Jesus means to serve the needs of others rather than to subdue them.

And this we see demonstrated in the example of Jesus who continually sought to bring dignity to those he encountered, even those who were outsiders or whose lives were deeply tarnished. In Jesus, we see unleashed the power of unlimited, self giving love. This love holds no pretensions as we see when Jesus touches the ground in order to wash the feet of his friends who would soon show how little they had learnt when in his time of anguish they would flee out of a desire to maintain their own safety above all else. And in Jesus, we see this serving of others as Jesus shows the Divine love for us by allowing himself to be tortured and killed publicly upon a cross. Oh yes, Jesus goes to the greatest of extremes in order that we might know the reality of our being reconciled to God.

The power that at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry could have been used for self is ultimately poured out for you and me. And all that we can do is to wonder at this love and to ask God’s help that such an attitude of self giving might enter into the depth of our being. For now we know that God is not a fan of shallow nonsense like our celebrity culture but instead God turns nobodies into somebodies. God lifts all people up and never like the wretched red top taboids slams them back down.

Such love!


This sermon was preached at Torrington Methodist Church on Sunday September 23rd 2007

Crazy little thing called love - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 15: 1 - 10

The American writer Max Lucado once wrote;

“If God had a refrigerator, your magnet picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. Face it, friend, he’s crazy about you.”

What a beautiful thought! However, badly we my feel about ourselves, however low we may have dropped in the esteem of others, God is absolutely crazy about us.

In this morning’s Gospel reading, we have seen something of that crazy love. Let’s just for a moment set the scene. Jesus is enjoying the company of those who Luke describes as “tax collectors” and “sinners.” These are the people who were most on the margins of society. In the case of tax collectors, the offence was that they raised money for an occupying power, Rome. More than that under the system by which this role was contracted out, they were people with considerable discretion as to how they raised the revenue and often this was done in ways that were ruthlessly exploitative. As for “sinners”, we are not told what exactly this means but most commentators suggest that at large meals, prostitutes would be amongst those present.

Now I don’t know about you but in my youth I was constantly told to be careful as to the people hose company I shared. That sort of parental advice has always been dished out and probably always will be. Warning as to company would certainly have been known by Jesus. After all the very first verse of the very first Psalm proclaims:

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.”

So it is no surprise that those guardians of holy living, the Pharisees begin to grumble. After all, this was a culture in which dining with a person involved a showing of acceptance of them. No wonder the moan went up;

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

No whilst I am sure that the Pharisees saw their emphasis upon living in accordance with the Law as being important as a means of pleasing God and thereby avoiding a calamity such as the destruction of the Temple and exile as had happened some 600 years earlier, leading to the emergence of the Pharisees. But is there not something desperately sad in their response? For here is the very worst type of religion which is alert to rules but totally blind as to people and their needs. All that they could see was the sin and that caused them to effectively write such people off. Hate filled religion which still rears its ugly head too often!

All of this leads Jesus into telling three stories. The most famous of these stories is that which we know as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but it is the two stories that precede it that we turn to this morning.

The first of these stories is about a shepherd. He has a hundred sheep but loses one of them. And of course as those of you who know the Sankey hymn, “The Ninety and Nine” will know, the shepherd goes in search of the missing sheep and rejoices when he finds it.

I wonder if we always appreciate what Jesus is here saying. Whilst shepherding was very much a commercial practice, in Israel and the surrounding area the image of the shepherd had been used to speak of caring, especially in regards to a ruler’s responsibility to his subjects. You see, this is about caring. And the message here is of caring for those who have gone astray. Why? Because in the eyes of Jesus, all have value and worth.

The second story is about a woman who has ten silver coins and loses one. Now, it is possible that these coins would be those that were put on a headband during the marriage ceremony, ten being required so that a woman could be properly married at a time when being married was crucial to a woman’s identity. There may also be a play on words as the Hebrew word for coins “Zuzim” can also mean those who have moved away. Anyhow, the woman embarks on a careful search of the house until such time as she finds the coin. And then like the shepherd, she calls her friends and neighbours so that they might rejoice with her. And Christ finishes both parables by speaking of the rejoicing in heaven as one sinner repents.

So what is the essential message? I think that Jesus is here telling us that God truly is crazy about us. God will go to any extremity in love for us because to God, not one of us is disposable. Made in the image of God, however badly we marr the image, God goes on loving us, willing the best for us and rejoicing when things come right.

An American Roman Catholic named Vincent Donovan pioneered missionary work amongst the Masai people in Tanzania. In his book about his experiences, “Christianity Rediscovered” he tells of a Masai chief who argues that his notion of faith as intellectual assent is like a white hunter shooting an elephant from great distance, only the eyes and fingers being involved. Real belief the chief argues is like a lion going after its prey, using all its being to make the prey a part of itself. Then he adds these powerful words;

“You told us of the High God, how we must search for him, even if we leave our land and our people to find him. But we have not done this. We have not left our land. We have not searched for him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion. In the end, the lion is God.”

Yes, our God is a God who searches us out. And the purpose is a love which is prepared to go to great lengths, even crazy lengths. It is a love which doesn’t condemn us but simply loves us to bits. That is what the stories told by Jesus are about. God never washes his hands of us but loves without limit, rejoicing when we respond the God’s embrace and take our place in the cycle of love. And in love, God can be seen in a despised shepherd or a marginalized woman. For God is the lion who will be all that is necessary to truly find us.

These stories are essentially God revealing. But they also demonstrate a healthy pattern for us to follow. Our calling is to love rather than to coldly sit in judgement of others. We are called to appreciate the value of fellow humans in all their variety.

Writer, Barbara Taylor Brown has written that these parables are a reminder that we are called to share in the work of Jesus as good shepherds in the world. She says;

“Repentance is not the issue, but rejoicing; the plot is not about mending our evil ways but about seeking, sweeping, finding and rejoicing. The invitation is not about being rescued by Jesus over and over but about joining him in recovering God’s treasure.”

And this can only be when we see the huge value that God sees in even the most difficult of people. For God does not dispose of people but goes on loving. And as followers of the Jesus way, we are called to share in such a love. For surely what the world needs today is to take the words of Queen recording, “A crazy little thing called love.”


This sermon was preached at Northam on Sunday September 16th 2007

Grateful hearts - Harvest Sermon

Luke 17: 11 - 19

“I spent the best moments of my life in the arms of a woman who is not my wife.”

After members of the congregation had gasped with horror, the preacher had gone on to explain that he was talking of the care and love that he received in his childhood from his mother.

Anyhow, the listening Bishop had been impressed and thought that he would use this introduction when next he preached. But sadly he had not taken into account his increasing tendency to forgetfulness and so addressing a packed church in his diocese he proclaimed;

“I have spent the best moment of my life in the arms of a woman who is not my life. Oh dear, I can’t remember who she was!”.

It is quite a reminder than it is important to remember the punch line if a meaningless ramble is to be resisted. Our Gospel reading today can be seen as a healing story but its powerful punchline is when Jesus says;

“Was no-one else found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

But to appreciate that comment, we need to see how the story evolves to take us to that point.

Now the background is that Jesus is travelling to Jerusalem. He has reached the border between Samaria and Galilee. There he meets a community of need, a gathering of outsiders. These people have skin diseases. Our use of the term leprosy here may be a little misleading as leprosy seems to have sometimes been used as a catch all description for a range of skin diseases and not just Hansen’s disease which we know as leprosy today. This is not to belittle the sufferings of these people for in those days, sufferers of skin diseases were stigmatised as being unclean and this meant that they would be isolated from the rest of their community, forced to fend for themselves.

Most people would have preferred the likes of these people, who would be seen as the authors of their own misfortunes by the cruel theologies that held sway then and indeed too often today, to suffer in silence. But the ten afflicted men, see in Jesus a possible means of cure. So they shout to him;

“Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

And now the response of Jesus becomes surprising. He doesn’t touch these men or even say a blessing to them. He simply tells them;

“Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

But wait a moment! This was the procedure to be followed after a healing. Only the priest could certify that the person was clean and fit to once more take their place in polite society. Still, the lepers set off and according to Luke, as they made their way in obedience to Jesus, they were cleansed. Oh, I guess there’s a sermon in this. Doing as told by Jesus, brings a cleansing.

But what really matters for this morning is what follows. Nine of the men, it would seem, continued on their path. Nothing wrong with that. They were simply doing what Jesus had told them to do. It is a fair conclusion that they couldn’t wait to rejoin their families and communities.

But for one, it was different. He doesn’t do what Jesus has told him to do. Instead he comes back to Jesus, throws himself at the feet of Jesus, and loudly praises God and expresses his thanks. And for this he wins the approval of Jesus. Listen to the words of Jesus;

“Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”

This man has done the right thing. He has both felt and demonstrated gratitude. Isn’t he a lesson to us who too often take the good things of life for granted. Surely, this man is a role model in his response to the receipt of blessings.

But there is another twist. The community of ten men with skin diseases was probably a rather precarious community. For a time, differences would have been suspended as a result of a shared need. But, the differences would have been there nonetheless. Still we only know an additional detail about the one man who came back to thank Jesus. And that detail was that he was a Samaritan.

Now, that may not be shocking for us. Few people get angry over the small Samaritan community that continues to live in Israel. But it would have disturbed the followers of Jesus and some of those who were the first readers of Luke. For there had been a long enmity between Jew and Samaritan going back half a millennium before the birth of Jesus. Its roots were in the Assyrian mingling with the once good Jews of Samaria. But now, it lived in a bitter divide on both racial and religious lines. All the prejudices we see today being heeped upon for example Muslims, travellers and asylum seekers were horrifyingly alive in the hatred directed at the Samaritans. Nothing was expected of such people and yet in this encounter, the outsider showed a much greater appreciation of the kindness of God than those who saw themselves as God’s people. Yes, the Samaritan is a reminder to us that those whom we are tempted to see as outside of God’s people, those who follow other spiritualities such as New age, may be more sensitively appreciative of God’s goodness than we who are inclined to feel that we are on the inside.

But there is one final twist to take notice of. And it is found in the final words of Jesus to this grateful Samaritan;

“Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Strange words! After all, he had already been cured of his condition. But, Jesus would seem to be suggesting that gratitude is a condition for finding true wholeness. If we are not grateful for our blessings, then something is missing from our lives. And we can express our gratitude in our response to God who in love is continually blessing us in ways which we should not turn our eyes away from. We have a God to thank. G. K. Chesterton once commented;

“The worse moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.”

We do have God to thank. To thank for so many blessings both physical and spiritual. And today as we gaze at the display within this church, we thank God for the Harvest, a Harvest which is the gift of God in partnership with those whose labours enables the bounty before us to be glorious reality.


This sermon is being preached for Harvest Festival at Gammaton Methodist Church on Sunday September 9th 2007

Being Real for Christ - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 14: 25 - 33

“The language of priorities is the religion of socialism.”

So said Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the National Health Service and later Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Whether socialist programmes and governments have lived up to those words is a matter for a debate which this morning is hardly the right time for. But a passion for right priorities is certainly at the heart of our Gospel reading.

But first prepare to be shocked!

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple.”

Wow! Crazy words! Can Jesus be serious? After all we live in a society that claims to revere the family and even now as we seem to be going through something of a phoney election season, no politician seeking electoral success, would dare to be seen as other than pro family. Yet here is Jesus, not just showing equivocation but using the sort of language about hating that we would be quick to jump on if it came from another religion or from one of the cults.

And yet, it is a good thing that Jesus expresses himself so strongly. For in doing so, he communicates with us, the very vital importance of his call to follow him. Here is the message that following Christ is not like taking up yet another hobby. It is so much more. It is about embracing a whole new way of life which transforms how we see the world around us.

But still it shocks us! Bishop William Willimon of the United Methodist Church in the USA, referring to this scripture has this to say;

“Jesus clearly, at least in this text, has no interest in meeting our needs. Rather, he appears intent upon giving us needs we would not have had, had we not met him. He speaks of severance from some of our most cherished values - after all, who would be against parenthood, family and self-fulfillment? Jesus, that’s who!”

Oh yes, Jesus is hardly on a mission to win popularity. For rather than appease the crowds of his time and our time, he is decidedly counter cultural. No spin doctor here!

So what is his message? It certainly entails commitment. But commitment to what? Just before this teaching about the cost of discipleship, Jesus, at dinner at the home of a Pharisee, has suggested that we should move beyond a pre occupation with status and demonstrate hospitality to the lowest in society. Then he has told the Parable of the Great Banquet. That parable has told us so much about the Kingdom that Jesus has come to inaugarate. This Kingdom is a place of joy, a bit like a party. And it is for all people. And as those who might have been expected to be at the centre of it have turned in other directions, the Kingdom has been offered to those who were at the bottom of the pile, those who might be seen as the unloved and the unlovely. For Christ has come to draw all peoples into the ongoing dance of divine love. And how radical, that must have seemed in a society in which the power of the few was all to often used to dehumanise and degrade the many. For Jesus has come with the revolutionary offer of love and acceptance for all peoples.

And this is a call that demands our commitment.

Let’s just for a moment look at what Jesus has to say. And this brings us to the apparent rejection of families. But here, we need to encounter these words with caution. This means that we have to be careful with how we use language. You see, exaggeration was a common linguistic trait in Judaism. A true translation of the meaning of Jesus would be “love less” or be “less attached.” It is still an uncomfortable saying by Jesus but its real meaning is along the lines that we must dare to see our main source of security as being in Jesus rather than in our family or the preservation of our own lives. In a way this is a calling to a faith that trusts in Jesus for all things but it is also a pointer to the very inclusive love that lies at the heart of the Parable of the Great Banquet. For all too often, we have used the nuclear family as a means of keeping the needs of the world beyond at bay. We have too often retreated into a world of “Me and Mine.”

Now don’t get me wrong. Christians have responsibilities to their families. Jesus demonstrates this when on the cross, he shows concern for the wellbeing of his mother. There he makes provision for her as he calls out to her as she stands near the Beloved Disciple;

“Dear woman, here is your son.”

And then he calls out to the Beloved Disciple;

“Here is your mother.”

And of course the result is that his mother Mary is taken into the home of the Beloved Disciple.”

But this has to be balanced with the times when Jesus points to a wider vision of family. Think of the occasion when his mother and brothers turn up wanting to speak to him, only for Jesus to respond;

“Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”

Before pointing at his disciples and saying;

“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Do you get it? This is exaggerated language through which Jesus tells us that we should not use family as an excuse to fail to bear witness to the generous, inclusive love that is at the heart of the new order that Jesus demonstrates in his own life and calls us to be a part of. Far from being an argument to retreat into solitary religion, this is Jesus’ call be a part of the revolution of all embracing love which serves to include those on the edges as has been demonstrated in the teaching of Jesus at the home of a Pharisee and in the subsequent Parable of the Great Banquet.

The second part of our reading speaks firstly of a tower. The question is whether a person who wishes to build a tower will not estimate the cost so that the tower might be brought to completion. For if this is not done and the tower is incomplete, Jesus suggests there will be an outcome of ridicule with people saying;

“This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”

Now these comments had about them something of a contemporary edge. Herod’s reign was littered with building projects which were never completed. This was an astonishing waste of resources but more than that, they bore witness to Herod lacing the commitment to see things through to a proper conclusion. I think that Jesus is telling us in both this story and that about the King at war, that good intentions are not enough. He is making clear that following him and entering into his Kingdom is not something that is just for the moment. Far from it, discipleship is about entering thoughtfully into a commitment that is to be seen through. We often see those adverts that tells us that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas. The adverts are right for dog ownership is a real commitment. How much greater a commitment is the life changing commitment to be a follower of Christ. It is not simply about a prayer of commitment at a highly charged service. To think of becoming a follower of Jesus in those terms, is but cheap grace. Rather becoming a follower of Jesus entails a decision in full awareness of the commitment that will be required, to live for the Jesus way as much at times of inevitable trial as in times of mountain top experience. This is a serious commitment and we should never sell that commitment short. Jesus wants real followers and not fair weather friends.

A final part of our reading speaks to us about salt. It doesn’t really lose its taste although in Judaism it can become ritually unclean. A suggestion made in his lectionary notes by Chris Haslam, is perhaps helpful here. He suggests that Jesus in his comments about salt becoming useless, might be thinking about salt deposits around the dead sea which when heavily rained upon, look like salt but in fact no longer are salt. And surely in that suggestion, there is the salutary warning. For we can become so complacent and effectively lukewarm in commitment to the Jesus way, that ultimately we may have the appearance of followers of the Christ way whilst lacking the substance. And that is a warning we should take seriously.

So this morning, are reminded of the importance of commitment even to the point of suffering as Jesus himself did on the cross. The commitment called for is a commitment in which we are prepared to give all and is a commitment that is steadfast. But this is not the type of commitment that is expressed in hostility to others as is so often the case when religion goes bad. Jesus does not ask for the type of religious fanaticism that we see in Inquisitions and planes going into buildings. He does not ask for the type of fanaticism which sees those who think differently as the enemy or that which portrays God as the author of threats to the recalcitrant. No, Jesus calls for a wholehearted commitment to his path of all embracing, inclusive love. It is a commitment to a path that is by no means dour for the goal is an party to which all are invited. In a sense there is a calling to a path which embraces both Cavalier and Roundhead. For the invite is to share in a community which is bright and dynamic and yet the calling is serious in that the cost must surely be counted and the commitment must be great.

Years ago, Michael Foot in his “Debts of Honour” devoted a chapter to his local preacher father Isaac, entitled “A Cavalier for the Roundheads.” It was a reasonable description yet I suspect that if we hold the entirety of the fourteenth chapter of Luke in creative tension, we find a calling to both exhibit the joy and inclusiveness of the one and serious commitment of the other.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

This sermon is being preached at Northam Methodist Church on September 9th 2007

Party Invitations - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 14: 1, 7 - 14

It was in the Methodist Church in Four Lanes. My great grandmother had arrived for the evening service with the young woman who was to be her daughter in law when disaster occurred. Moving to the row where she sat on a weekly basis, my great grandmother saw another woman in her seat. Ignoring the young woman’s suggestion that they should just sit in another seat, my great grandmother replied;

“I have paid for that seat.”

And with that, this woman who looked a bit like John Prescott in drag, placed herself on the other woman’s lap until the unfortunate woman agreed to move.

The days of pew rents when people paid to have the right to occupy what they deemed to be the best seats, are fortunately well behind us. I know of no Methodist Church where such a practice exists, thank God! Indeed, I would refuse to serve in such a church if it existed. And yet, I dare to suggest that the desire for status is far from belonging to the past.

Issues of status are certainly to be found in this morning’s Gospel reading. The background is that Jesus is sharing in a Sabbath meal at the home of a prominent Pharisee. That this should be the case, attracts our immediate attention. After all, we often think of the Pharisees as the great enemies of Jesus. Yet, such was by no means always the case. A Pharisee would only invite those who took the Torah seriously. And clearly this Pharisee felt that Jesus did precisely that. Of course, there were a number of conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees but these were the conflicts that take place between those who have much in common. How sad that too often today, we have a jaundiced view as to the Pharisees whose primary motive was to preserve the way of life that they felt to be God given. For such a view has too often led to the curse of ant Semitism which has been a blight on the history of the Christian church.

But of course there were conflicts even if they are recorded in the Gospels against a background of the subsequent divorce between Judaism and the Christianity which it spawned. Anyhow, today’s Gospel is rooted on a meal shared by Jesus with Pharisees. Within the meal , there has been a degree of disagreement concerning what is permissible on the Sabbath. But our reading takes us into the realms of a different matter - the matter of status!

In the first part of our Bible reading, we find Jesus suggesting that in the Kingdom of God, we are called upon to relinquish the desire to be seen as more important than others. For meals such as this, there would have been a correct order of seating. The nearest thing we get to it today would probably be at a wedding or at a State Banquet. As with a wedding banquet, the custom at such meals at the time of Jesus was for there to be a place for the most important people present, the least important people present as well as for those who came somewhere inbetween. This is why such importance is given to the beloved disciple at the Last Supper having his head next to the chest of Jesus as they reclined to eat.
We talk today of the greasy pole and such existed at the time of Jesus as well. People wished to rise and dreaded falling. In some ways, the advice of Jesus to take a lowly seat may be seen as advice to protect people from the indignity that would come if they had valued themselves to highly and now faced demotion. But, I think it is about more than this. I think that Jesus is suggesting that God is not concerned with our hierarchies and that within the Kingdom of God which Jesus has come to proclaim, our distinctions based on class, learning or race, have no place whatsoever. It is in abandoning the greasy pole that we embrace the path of Christ and find ourselves truly raised up as we become open to sharing in the life of God. For God is not the God whose love is confined to an elite but God is the God who is committed in love to and for all peoples.

And then, we come to the advice that Jesus offers to the host. His suggestion is that the host should offer hospitality not to those who can do the host good but to offer it to those who are utterly powerless to respond in kind. True blessing comes from inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Today, we lose a sense of the radicalism of these words. For these were the days when the dominant theology held people as being responsible for their own misfortunes. It was a cruel theology and some of its roots can be found in the Deuteronomic writings within the Old Testament in which writers seek to explain the catastrophe of Israel’s exile in terms of its disobedience. And indeed sometimes today, a distorted religion turns God into some sort of hitman dealing out the cruellest of punishments to those who err. Oh beware of the sort of teaching that dares to misrepresent God as a monster.

This teaching was all around at the time of Jesus. If someone was a leper, this hateful religion suggested that such was a result of sin. And in nearby, Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, there was the Essene community which suggested that the very people whom Jesus suggested that the host should invite, were excluded from the much anticipated Messianic Banquet that lay at the heart of Jewish hope for the future.

What Jesus is suggesting is that there is no room for exclusion. The very people who we are tempted to shy away from, are to be welcomed into our community life. This is the Gospel that bids a hearty welcome to the stranger, the outcast and the person who cannot fit in. Why? Because the Gospel of Christ is for al!

“For all, for all my saviour died. For all my Lord was crucified!”

All beloved of God, we are called into a community of solidarity which has no walls or barriers.

Let me tell you a story which comes from Canada and which relates to Fred Craddock, a well known American preacher.

Fred was in the city of Winnipeg. It was early October and a storm had paralysed the city. For his breakfast, Fred found himself in a café at the bus depot.. As he entered a big man with a greasy apron came over and asked him what he wanted. Not knowing what the café served, Fred asked for a menu. Grumpily the man said;

“What d’ya want with a menu? We have soup.”

“Then I’ll have soup” replied Fred.

Soon afterwards, the man brought Craddock his soup. It looked unusual, rather grey like a mouse. Nervously, he picked up his spoon and tasted it. It was ghastly. How can I eat that he said to himself.

At that the door opened and in came a woman. She was middle aged and had a coat on but no ead covering. Quickly she was ushered to a seat. Soon the man with the greasy apron came over and the whole café heard the following conversation;

“What d’ya want”

“Bring me a glass of water please.”

The man brought the water and repeated the question;

“What d’ya want?”

“Just the water.”

“Lady, you gotta order something.”

“Just the water.”

The man’s voice now began to rise;

“Lady I’ve got paying customers here waiting for a place, now order!”

“Just the water.”

“You order something or get out!”

“Can I stay and get warm?”

“Order or get out!”

And so the woman got up. But not only the woman. Others got up and the sight of people rising rippled around the café and Fred to got up. Next they all began to move towards the door.

At this the man with the greasy apron said;

“OK. She can stay.”

And so everyone sat down. The man even brought the woman a bowl of soup.

Fred turned to the man sat next to him and asked;

“Who is she?”

The man replied;

“I never saw her before but if she ain’t welcome, ain’t nobody welcome.”

Fred looked around and saw all around people eating the soup. And he thought to himself;

“Well, if they can eat it, I can eat it.”

With that, he picked up his spoon and began to eat. Later he recalled;

“It was a good soup. I ate all that soup. It was strange soup. I don’t remember ever having it. …. I remember eating something that tasted like that before.”

As he left the café, he remembered what it was. It had tasted to him like bread and wine. And Fred mused,

“I wish that had happened in a church.”

This morning, at the beginning of a Methodist New Year, we prepare to celebrate with bread and wine. It’s a party to which we are all invited by the host who is Jesus himself. We come celebrating that the invitation comes from his kindness. And as we come to receive bread and wine, we give thanks that as we receive we are brought into solidarity with diverse people who likewise are invited by Jesus. For Jesus issues the invites to all.


This sermon was preached at Bideford Methodist Church on September 2nd 2007