Sermon: Trinity I (B) – Sunday 2nd June 2024 – St Anne’s, Wrenthorpe
Church and food…. They often go well together, don’t they?
When we do gathering, fellowship and hospitality… we offer food, we share this with others.
We have people in our midst who ensure such moments happen…
And we have plenty of inspiration for this in scripture, especially in the Gospels.
On Thursday, we celebrated Corpus Christi – a thanksgiving for Holy Communion – the Eucharist – in it becoming an actual thing: a way in which we can remember Jesus, and connect in the Holy Spirit – through eating and drinking.
Thankfully, at least this is still an instruction we follow…. “Do this in remembrance of me…”.
What about our other church or religious rules….?
We are walking with the writer of Mark’s Gospel now. There is often a fair bit of activity in Mark.
Today, we have Jesus and the Disciples walking through a cornfield… we don’t know anything about this moment, other than the likelihood that the Disciples are hungry…. They are eating directly from the plants around them!
And this is a bad thing… apparently…
It is obvious to us that eating when hungry is essential to life… and we would not discourage anyone from doing so. However, back then…. In that place….they were being observed by the Pharisees, whose ideas about keeping to the Laws of Moses were more important than human need.
Or so its seems to us, over 2000 years later.
The Pharisees then, were a long established, yet unofficial, kind of morality police – for want of a better expression – the likes of which we might hear of in modern day Iran – imposing quite different rules.
They weren’t criticising the behaviour of Jesus, but that He let His Disciples do what they wanted on the Sabbath – a day given by God, for resting – to be observed, regardless.
Jesus responds by speaking up for The Disciples behaviour, with scripture and with authority…. The Son of Man will reframe the rule-constrained Sabbath, and transform everything into the joy that God has for us all – the Sabbath for humankind, not the other way around!
The Pharisees did not see this coming!
And again, in the synagogue, relieving the suffering of someone, Jesus pushes back at the Pharisees’ ‘hardness of heart’ and the burden they placed on ordinary people, with rules that were probably impossible to live with.
What was allowed, then? Kill or give life…? To do good…or evil…?
If the Pharisees revere the Sabbath for its echo of God resting after Creation…. Then what was their problem?
It is in recent times that this country has become more relaxed in its own attitudes towards our Sabbath.
We might lament the introduction of Sunday trading and 7 days of shopping, the possibilities of recreation at all times… the obvious failure of government to uphold good Christian values in the face of popular demand for 24-7 slackness!
And more cynicism prevails, if we believe that such moves are purely profit driven and thus, of the devil.
Or, how does a nation: of many cultures and faiths – or none; of complex working arrangements of the masses, of generational changes in attitudes towards morality and identity – how does it respond?
Even when religion encourages a day off – do we really need the Government to sanction and enforce it?
No we don’t. And maybe we didn’t back then.
Faith draws us to God and we find our own ways to honour God with our rest – we didn’t need telling off for being disrespectful to our Creator!
A Sabbaths rest, as a social and cultural phenomenon, has gone for good.
And whoever said that we should work for 5 days out of 7, anyway?
The notion of work-life balance, whilst aspirational, is a nonsense if we don’t really know what rest is, or how to take it.
And what about the workforce that has no specific days off? That rarely has time provided for family and recreation?
The Church might not hold the same influence to make Sunday ‘special’, but the least it can do is to ensure legislation protects all workers in that way.
None of this is straightforward.
After all, the Jewish Sabbath was and is a time for family to recall – community, the past, their selves, experiences – all in an attitude of prayer and hospitality.
The creativity of God – and God’s delight in all that was made: it is the whole purpose of Sabbath.
Did we ever do that?
Our response to God – to the gift of life, of love, of Spirit, of blessing and creation… how is that known?
Can it be forced through rules and allegiances?
The Christian Church is global with the familiar and the strange in every place!
And here, Anglican, Roman Catholic or Methodist – integrity or division…?
And then evangelical, anglo-catholic, and…
Well then the list of differences might become more about what one groups says is right and what the other groups disagree with….
At every turn – are you one of us? If you are, then you will want to be like us and do what we do, and not do what they do over there…. At that church!
Yes, it’s simplistic, but you get the picture….
Any population – or congregation – that follows rules and laws that define or bind their members, could well be creating a cross too big to lift and carry….
Traditions, local practices, “the way we do things here”… it’s OK to have that, but maybe look at what we do in the light of prayer and reflection.
Yes that sounds doable, doesn’t it?
And then, imagine talking with someone who was raised in a church community, aligned to a flag, or politics or regional ideals; who talks about God, but has views you don’t understand, let alone share… with practices that seem onerous, and rules that dismisses freewill.
They say that is their life, their faith, their discipleship… and who are you to say otherwise…!
Do we imagine some kind of universal, eternal struggle between our freedoms – which we take for granted…. And some shadowy, oppressive world of restriction and rules? Think Orwell’s 1984 – very real for some.
When it comes to protecting our faith traditions and history – is it them and us… that no one will stop us worshipping God, in the ways we to?
And do we tell God to give us all of the good stuff because we behave properly, follow the rules of the Church, the Commandments, our moral codes…. That when the Bishop comes calling, we will get 10 out of 10 for christian effort, and for our parish share?
You only have to sit through a few episodes – of PCC… sorry, PCC meetings…. To know that rules are our friends and are there to help us…!
Well, if we don’t have some structure then society falls apart. We know this.
The same might be said of religion – there needs to be rules and laws to ensure correct governance. We have Canon Law to enable the Church of England to function legally as the established church, with structures for safeguarding and leading parishes effectively; and frameworks for liturgy and worship that ensure the life of the church is one of prayer, dignity and grace.
And returning to eating and church….
We all know what happens when rules are not followed for food preparation and hygiene….!
None of this, though, has a parallel with Jesus pushing against the morality police of His day…..
Usually the problem lays with people – those who interpret laws and rules, seeking extremes of purity and ‘rightness’ – with restrictions placed on those who seek God with their whole heart….yet in their own way…to the best of their ability.
What might we take from all this, in the days to come…?
How do we know if we are getting it right….? And is that even relevant?
We might find some insight if we look at a passage from later in Mark’s Gospel.
In Chapter 12, Jesus is asked about which Commandment was the most ‘important’.
He responds with:
“The first is this: …‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” —Mark 12:28–31
From Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18
Nothing here about possessions, or morality…. Not even a direct connection with the Ten Commandments handed to Moses, and listed in Exodus.
Certainly nothing for us to boast about concerning purity…..
These two commandments are from passages found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
These books have many, many laws for the people of Israel.
Yet, our moral codes and laws are mostly based on the tablets of Moses.
So why does Jesus acknowledge these two particular commandments?
You might not be surprised when I say…
It’s all about Love…. It’s ALWAYS about love….
Love God – in all the ways you can, and sometimes cant…!
Love your neighbour.. AND yourself….
The Gift God has given to you… is YOU….!
Jesus lived in this way, and then, as He was about to go to His death, He passed it on again…. “As I have loved, you… so you must love one another”. (John 15:12)
It’s always about love.
The rest of it is important for creating laws and for living together in community….
At the end…. when we are judged – it will be on our love of life, of one another and of ourselves…
All of that takes a lifetime….our lifetime…
Whatever we do in church, however we live as Disciples…. Let it always be in the light of love for God – with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength – and show this, by loving yourself and loving your neighbour.
Don’t make it about imposing rules that cannot be followed, or expecting a purity that cannot be achieved.
Now, you might be aware that we have a General Election, looming large on the horizon!
I don’t know what you hope for, what you would ask the MP on your doorstep….
As a Christian community, we might hope and pray that our future government will uphold the needs of the poor and those without a voice; that solutions can be found for our major challenges without causing division….
However you approach this time of national choice, however you talk about it with others, whatever you might think of the people and the policies….
Surround it in prayer, and imagine how different the world would be if we just obeyed that one commandment: to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
I pray we take that to the ballot box.
Amen.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash