Sermon: III Before Lent (Year C) – Sunday 16th February 2025 – St Paul’s, Alverthorpe (Eucharist)
Luke 6.17-26 – 1 Corinthians 15.12-20 – Jeremiah 17.5-10
I recently read an article about how the Church of England is in decline, less relevant and less popular than ever before and with the greatest burden of historical building management left to a few unsuitable caretakers… that’s us by the way.
Nothing new there, and no it wasn’t a report from synod….! I could have been reading any newspaper in any decade since the latter part of the twentieth century….. I get quite irritated by such reviews. Anglicanism maybe waning in numbers but Christianity isn’t done for yet.
Sadly, what is really under the microscope is the presence of a national religion – a local branch of Christianity – that seems to still pervade all areas of national life…. In a society that no longer values at face value….
You can hear the shouts of “it’s not my religion” or “who cares?” in most places where a bishop says something controversial, or challenging to the status quo.
Of course, the question of a national, established church is perennial, and needs discussion in every generation. Perhaps if we gave up our buildings and did the work of Jesus in a different way, would we flourish and become more ‘attractive’? Who knows…
Regardless, as Christian disciples in this 21st century, we always know that revealing the glory of God and spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ is not an easy win….! Transformation through God’s redeeming grace is totally free of charge… yet… for some reason, these seats are not filled, and our efforts to tell the world are often pushed back, and generally rejected. Although not always, it has to be said…
Well, what about today’s scripture readings, I hear you ask…..
Previously, in Luke….
Jesus proclaimed that the hopes of Isaiah would become the reality….
Then….
Jesus chose a group of disciples, to help turn the world the right way up…
And here, today, we have the Sermon on the Plain – similar to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount – where those who hunger for justice, who are usually invisible or outcast… are now SEEN and KNOWN by Jesus.
When Jesus reveals the Kingdom of God on earth, the acceptable ways of the world are thrown into disarray ….
He speaks about Blessings and Woes…
There is “blessing” in sadness, hunger, poverty and in being despised. What?
Those present, hearing such words spoken by this unknown preacher must have wondered what it all meant… or maybe they did understand because they knew He meant them..?
And then… “woes” …..literally…..whoah….!
For those who find a completeness in their “now”: the full, the rich, those laughing at their good fortune, and the well thought of…. Of them Jesus speaks of woe…..
Have they given up trusting in God…?
Does this refer to me… to you?
It isn’t easy for us to ‘apply’ these words – such Blessings and Woes – to those in the most awful of circumstances….
Those whose lives are destroyed by war…
Or the violence from those closest to them…
Communities are torn apart…
People who throw themselves at the slim possibility of small boats and shipping containers…..
All of whom are at the mercy of so-called leaders who seek to steal their land, or do murky deals to look good, riding roughshod over what makes them human and gives them value….
You know who I mean – all of those we pray for every week…
How are they transformed?
If we speak the words of Jesus to them, will it help?
Where is the good news in their life and how will we show it to them, from the bounty of ours?
Healing and transformation are found in our trust in God – through the choices we make with the words of Jesus echoing in our souls…
The woes, that Jesus describes…. Are when we choose not to do that, when we believe that we are the enablers of our own destiny and that we don’t need God.
I’ll be honest with you, at this time of year, when it’s cold and permanently overcast; with endless misery and doom playing out on our news channels…
I struggle to remain upbeat and positive.
I am generally a hope-filled person…
I have so many blessings to be grateful for….
And yet…. Hmm.
Last week I visited the National Justice Museum, in Nottingham. It was quite good, as museums go, although it wasn’t filled with joy, being mostly about crime and punishment!
However, there was a photography exhibition on the theme of Hope…..
Black and white images from different perspective on what was hopeful, or what was hoped for…
I found it most moving… and uplifting…. A true candle in the darkness….
From new life, and nature in all its glory, to second chances and genuine gratitude – humanity revealed as capable of turning everything upside down and making progress towards the light….
Spring is on its way…. And in that I will find something to cling on to…
Likewise, those who hear the words of Jesus… spoken truly to their very being….
Who build a life on those words, and become lights in the darkness, through kindness, forgiveness, perseverance, compassion and love.
We have heard such words…. And we can make choices…
Sometimes these choices seem slender, and for many they seem impossible.
We may be Ok – with enough to eat, freedom of movement and conscience, reasonable health, and with many friends etc…. We still trust in God, though, right?
There is a tendency amongst some who profess a Christian beleif to say that “I have made it….”
The journey is complete and God sees me in the perfection of my efforts!
Need is for other people and we “fix them”… whoever “them” is….
We can easily believe that our churches are where everyone must come to….
That the way we have always done things must prevail…..
Humility is for little people….
I think you know what I mean…
It’s all there in Jeremiah…!
Be a tree by a river…. More on that in a moment!
And also…
Paul tries to get the people of Corinth to look beyond the mechanics of resurrection to the power that made it so….and will do so again and again for us…. It’s God!
He says:
“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.“ (v19)
The same power that created the universe and made us out of the dust of stars – redeems us today – delivers us, enlivens and transforms us… and invites us to choose life!
Perhaps you find that The Resurrection of Jesus is too challenging to discuss over coffee after worship…. It’s tricky enough at Easter!
Maybe if challenged, by people who know you as a Christian, you will speak of it on your own terms, in your own words….
You could reveal how God has transformed you – across the years – in following Jesus and reflecting on His words…..
How Jesus spoke of death and sin being overcome through God’s grace….
That loving one another led to a different way of life….
And no matter what the world throws at us, we can be remade and transformed….yes…!
Thomas Merton once wrote that hope was a bigger scandal than we could ever know…. That through hopeful perseverance….. we must let go of everything until all we have, at the end, is God.
Not hanging on, regardless….. but letting go, giving it all to God….
In hope.
And trust.
Hope isn’t a foolish, blind optimism … it is a genuine trust of what cannot be seen or known, that is nurtured and sustained by grace.
None of us can say what will happen to the Church of England… or any form of collective Christian endeavour. Whatever the future brings will be complicated.
Whether we hang on or let go….. of whatever seems to hold us back…. no one will take us seriously or see a value in what we believe, unless our faith and discipleship is transformed into healing for others, and for ourselves.
All of this brings us to choice: Choose life… choose the way of Christ, knowing you are seen and loved and valued in God’s free grace – whether you are now, or have ever been or might one day become – in great need through sorrow, hunger, poverty or how you are spoken of…..
You are blessed….
Or… the other way up…. Maybe in of all of your riches and blessings, you do not wish to be presumed so self-sufficient that you don’t need God’s grace….
Let it not be woe!
Because, let’s face it, choosing a life as a Christian disciple means you know full well that you begin each day seeking the face of God, feeling the warmth of the Holy Spirit guiding you forward, and sitting at the feet of Jesus because you still have so much to learn…. And we do!
You will do this….sisters and brothers …
With hope, you will seek the face of God in the mirror, and in everyone you meet;
You will feel the warmth of the spirit in all of your blessings;
And from here, where we sit with Jesus, to out there where Jesus walks with us…
We will not be alone. Have hope!
In the days to come….
Take your trust, your humility, your faith, your hope and your love…
And flourish….
Show it all to anyone you meet…
The transformation of the world begins in that moment….
I would like to finish with a section from the Prophet Jeremiah, we heard earlier:
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
I think that says it all…
God be praised.
Amen.
Article: In the Guardian 15/02/25
Merton Quote: Gardener, F. (2011) Precious Thoughts: Daily Readings from the correspondence of Thomas Merton, DLT, London (p.31)
Image: Takashi Watanabe on Unsplash