Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent
5 December 2004
Recorded for BBC TV at St Mary's Chesham
THE SON OF MAN CAME EATING AND DRINKING
Reflection 1
Ever since things started to go wrong with the world people have been looking for someone to save them. The prophets kept predicting that one day God would send someone special to put right all that was wrong with the earth.
There were lots of clues in the Old Testament as to what this person might be like. But when he came, he took the world by surprise. Those who thought he'd come like a king were mystified to find him born the son of a carpenter; those who thought he'd be like a monk were taken aback when he partied with the best of them and made no secret of his eating and drinking!
Here was a fully fledged human being! Jesus of Nazareth - full of love and laughter, compassion and passion for justice, full of grace and truth. Here was the most divine human being ever to have walked the face of the earth!
He had the most extraordinary effect on people. In his presence you felt both love and shame. Love - for he was someone who accepted you as you were, with your thoughts, warts and all. Shame - because you felt deeply the distance between his loveliness and your own lovelessness. Yet he drew you to himself, and still does. He claimed an authority on earth to forgive sins and still does. As the prophet predicted he came 'to cleanse us from our sins and to purify our hearts'.
Reflection 2
Forgiveness is the medicine we need in order to become anything like the human beings God intended us to be when he first peopled the planet.
The opening pages of the Bible show that God made us to be consumers and traders. In fact, we are natural consumers and born traders. Although there's a lot wrong with our consumerist culture we can't deny that being human means consuming! The world God originally made was full of good things for us to enjoy. And, although it shocked some people, Jesus himself came eating and drinking, enjoying the fruits of God's creation. He enjoyed a good feast and a good festival, even though he knew the needs of the poor. He was not a kill-joy or a party-pooper. He loved life. He gave life. He breathed life into his followers.
Reflection 3
Following Jesus gives us a new outlook on life. To say that all is not right with the world is a gross understatement! So many sinister things are happening that some fear for the very survival of the planet. Although God has made us natural consumers and born traders it's clear that we've got the earth into a terrible state, with just 20% of us controlling and consuming most of the world's trade. Imagine on Christmas Day if there were ten people around your table and just two then took 8/10ths of all the food and all the presents! There'd be a riot! But that's what happening in the world - at this very moment. It seems a far cry from what God originally intended. A million miles from the providence of God. Listen to how Jesus put it.
Reflection 4
Jesus asks us to consider three things: birds, flowers and people. The birds don't grow their own food yet God feeds them generously. The flowers don't make their own clothes yet God dresses them beautifully. But when it comes to people, the sad and tragic fact is that millions upon millions go cold and hungry. So much so that many, understandably, get anxious about what they're going to eat, and how they might keep warm.
As always, Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter. 'Strive first for God's rule and his justice'. You see, when we start to live under God's rule, to share fairly what God has given us then - and only then - will everything come to the poor and needy.
Jesus says openly 'Your heavenly Father knows you need all these things'. He made a world full of them to feed and to clothe us as generously as he does the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. It is up to us to share fairly his providence.
Reflection 5
One of the reasons crowds flocked to be with Jesus is that he entertained them with stories. The scenario I'm about to draw isn't exactly one of his but it makes some familiar points.
Imagine that somebody invites you for the cruise of a lifetime. You come to the dock at Liverpool and the person says to you "Just a couple of conditions; this is all on me but you are never to ask where we are going or when we are going to get there".
"Sounds fine by me" you say. You board this ship and it's luxurious; you are shown to your suite on A deck and you cannot believe it. Within a few hours you are sailing in the sun and you think "If there's a heaven, it must be like this!". After six weeks of sailing around on this ship you think to yourself "I wonder where we're going" but, after all, you've made a promise and being British - stiff upper lip! - you keep the question to yourself and you carry on enjoying yourself.
After six months you cannot hold the question any longer. You grab your host and say "Listen, I don't want to appear ungrateful but please, could you just tell me where we are going and when we are going to get there?" He says "Is there a problem? Is the suite not comfortable? Is the food not to your liking? "No, no" you say "It is all wonderful. I'm having the time of my life but I just wondered where and when". He says dismissively "Eat, drink, be merry". So you do your best.
After ten years of sailing around on this wretched ocean liner the dream has become a nightmare. You scream at him "Please, please tell me where and when". Ridiculous? No. We are on this planet like a ship cruising through space and every now and again the question pops into the mind of every single traveller: where and when? - These are questions of purpose and meaning.
Imagine you recover your composure and you say to your host "Well tell me, how many on this ship?" He says to you "Guess". Well, you're not in the mood for guessing games and you say "Two hundred"? "Wrong - a thousand". You say "a thousand people? You're kidding me; it feels like two hundred". "Yes" he says "That is what it feels like to you because here on A deck there are only 200 people. But for the last ten years in the hold of this ship there have been 800 people and they are all on bread and water".
Ridiculous? No. On this ship, planet Earth, 20% of us are on A deck and 80% are in the hold of the ship. I have seen it in Africa and India and not so far away and the water is not even pure.
I use that story a lot, especially in schools. It provokes several reactions. One, it is a story about privilege; two, it is a story about justice. It evokes a moral response: it begins to point up how it ought to be rather than how it is. It also induces - and this is not a fashionable concept in today's world but here goes - guilt. There is good guilt and bad guilt. Bad guilt leads to worthlessness and low self esteem; good guilt evokes moral responsibility and moral action.
Speaking of the future Jesus the Son of Man said "In as much you have not done it to the least of these my brothers and sisters you have not done it to me". If you believe that the future of the earth and the plight of the least, the last and the lost is not a matter of indifference to God then it is right to feel guilty, to repent and to act.
The alternative suggested by Jesus is an alarming scenario.
Imagine a great storm whips up the seas and a huge gale threatens the survival of the ship. You and your host and the passengers on A deck take to the limited number of lifeboats and abandon ship leaving the eight hundred to perish in the storm. Once you have cast adrift and at a safe distance from the impending wreckage the weather takes a surprising and immediate turn. The winds subside and as you bob around uncharted waters in your precarious little raft you watch the abandoned ship disappear over the horizon of gold-spangled clouds into a very different future.
Reading: Matthew 25 v31-46
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep on his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Reflection 6
That is one of the most disturbingly beautiful passages in the Bible. It's an invitation to meet Jesus. Coming face to face with the least, the last, the lost and the lonely is where we find him. Not my words, his!
Remember Jesus saying "Strive first for God's rule in your life and his justice' then 'all these things will be (shared) among you'. The people who do it and share it with the poor are given one of the greatest privileges in the world - an encounter with Jesus.
I remember taking a service on one of the estates that was very poor. In spite of all the social problems there were some wonderful children. One little girl came often to the church which doubled up as a community centre selling second-hand clothes and running a youth club. She was brought up by her grandmother. The day I went she had written a couple of prayers for the service. We stood in a circle - some twenty five adults and twenty five children - sang songs, listened to the stories of Jesus and broke and shared the bread together. At the end I was just about to say the Blessing when the youth worker rushed up and reminded me that I'd forgotten to ask Stacey to read her prayers. She came forward and prayed and her words circled us with the love of God. A few weeks later she was dead. Murdered. By someone known to her mother who threw a petrol bomb into the house. Her brothers and mother survived. Stacey's burns were so much that she could not feel them, and died soon after. At her funeral her Headteacher said that she was like 'An angel on loan from heaven'. I often think back to that little girl, a follower of Jesus against all the odds in that tough estate. Who had put it in her heart that day to say those prayers? I wonder whether that was not one of the closest that I've ever been to Jesus in another human being. Her picture hangs in my house over one of her drawings with the writing:
I say
I say
I say, say, say
I love God
and everybody!
I was so glad I shared the bread of Communion with the children that day. It was a sign of how God welcomes us all to his Kingdom, especially the poor, the least and all who hunger and thirst.
Reflection 7
When the love of God grips us, when we sense that he has a purpose for our lives, when we feel caught up in God's plan to bring about a new world in which justice and mercy clasp hands together then the flame of a new passion burns within. The Spirit, who anointed Jesus to bring good news to the poor, comes on us stirring us to do the same:
Reflection 8
At the heart of the Lord's Prayer is the desire to do God's will on earth as it's done on heaven. When you think about it, this is an extraordinary thing to ask for! Heaven is a realm of sweetness and light where relationships are perfect and everything is fair. We're asking for that to be the situation here! Those of us on 'A' Deck have the power and the responsibility to share what we have fairly with those in the hold of the ship, so that everybody and, not just the rich, can each day have the daily bread that God intended.
The earth is God's larder from which all the world can be sustained. In this 21st century we have to find new ways of making sure everybody gets their fair share. The scarcer the resources get, like oil and water, the more the poor will lose out and suffer.
The earth, and everything in it and on it, including ourselves, came into being because God's love willed it. To pray the Lord's prayer is to begin to bring his love down to earth.
Reflection 9
"Let no tongue on earth be silent". Well, we've certainly given voice to our worship of God today. Next Sunday at the same time we'll be doing so again. Then we shall be in Liverpool. In a beautiful and traditional service of Holy Communion and with the city's leading Gospel Choir we'll be showing how Jesus has the authority to forgive us and to bring about a new world.
For now, we thank God for his love and for the three comings of Jesus: His first coming to the earth to live as one of us from the womb to the tomb. His second coming to the earth when he will establish God's Kingdom for ever.And, the third coming of Jesus which happens each time we open the door of our lives to him, Our Lord, Our Shepherd, Our King.
So, a prayer from St. Columba
My dearest Lord,
Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me,
Be thou a smooth path beneath me,
Be thou a kingly shepherd behind me,
Today and for ever more.