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Sermon - The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (A) - 24th August 2008
St Aidans West Epping
Readings: Exodus 1:8-2:10, Psalm 124, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20
A couple of weeks ago I took part in a forum at a Catholic Church in the Blue Mountains on church unity. Originally I was asked to give my views on a booklet called “Why the Church?”, published by the Australian Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue. As it turned out, the organizers of the forum wanted a more general reflection on the future of church unity, rather than a book review.
However, I found reading and reflecting on the booklet was an interesting experience. It spoke of the church as the body of Christ, keeping alive the story of Jesus, and expressing and communicating the Gospel of Jesus. It spoke of the church as community, sending out its members to serve Christ’s purposes in the world. It spoke of the humanness and brokenness of the church, which falls short of its call, but invites people to join in the journey of faith.
There were some very interesting and helpful things in the report, but I initially found it very frustrating. As I told a couple of people, it ignored the elephant in the room. In other words, it gave no acknowledgement of the very different understandings of the church held by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. How could you get anywhere without acknowledging that problem?
I eventually concluded that there was real value in putting the structural problem to one side. If there is going to be any progress in this area, it will come on the basis of a closer understanding of the church’s purpose. Starting with denominational structures will quickly lead to roadblocks: moving forward from a growing understanding of a shared purpose is probably the way to go.
My reflections on these issues came very much to mind as I thought about the readings set for today. Each of them opens up in different ways the purposes of God, who not only saves and blesses individuals, but who is gathering a community. Of course we know this community as the church.
And the church is at the heart of God’s purposes. That is not surprising, for God is love, God is Trinity. Relationship, community, is right at the heart of the very being of God.
For instance, in our first reading, from the book of Exodus, we heard of the descendants of Jacob, the people of Israel. They had come to Egypt in the time of Joseph, a few hundred years earlier, to escape a terrible drought. Over the years they had prospered to the point that they became a potential threat to the Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt.
When people in power are threatened, they can react in brutal ways, and so the people of Israel found themselves first of all enslaved, and then threatened with genocide, as attempts were made to kill all male children. But God chose to act, because these were his chosen people.
Of course he acts in his own way. It starts with the rescue from death of one tiny boy, in that famous story of the baby in the bulrushes. But this is the one God has chosen who will eventually lead the people out of Egypt to the land which God has generations beforehand promised to Abraham. So the rescue of Moses is not just a matter of God doing something wonderful for that family: it is the starting point of great blessing for the people of Israel. We will be having readings from Exodus over the next couple of months, and significant though Moses is, we need to remember that the real purposes of God are fulfilled in the gathering together of his people, his covenant people, his community.
And then in Romans, we heard those famous words of Paul, calling us his readers to respond to the mercies of God by giving our bodies as a sacrifice to God, giving him our lives, as Christ also gave his life for us. He reminds us that true worship is not just about liturgy and hymns, but about the whole of life, our behaviour, our actions, our godly love. We are to allow our minds to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, so that we can be open to the call of God and the purposes of God.
It is easy to forget the connections with the following verses, which talk about having the right attitude to ourselves, and about serving one another. But it is only as we allow God to renew our minds that we will have the right attitude: that we won’t have too high an opinion of ourselves, and be arrogant. And it is only as we allow God to renew our minds that we will have that sober judgement, which will acknowledge that we are made by God in his image, and are therefore of real value and significance - and so are other people, whatever we may naturally think of them. And it is only as we allow God to renew our minds that we will see ourselves with the eye of faith, as people who are to bring blessing to others as we use the gifts and opportunities God provides.
We are to serve others not in order to impress people or to put them in our debt, but rather as an expression of God’s love. Let us ask God to give us that renewed mind, with an attitude of humility that saves us from arrogance, of reality that acknowledges the gifts we have to offer, and faith that recognizes that we are equipped by the grace of God who shows that grace to others as we serve and care for one another. The gifts of God are not there to set us above others, but to bring us together in mutual service and ministry. We are saved in order to serve: to serve God and to serve one another.
And then of course we have that controversial passage from Matthew’s Gospel. The apostles have learnt to have a form of faith in Jesus, but challenged by him, it is Peter who declares his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus tells Peter that this is not just good thinking: it is God’s revelation.
And Peter needs God’s revelation, for he is the rock, who will be acknowledged, along with the other apostles, as the foundation of the church. It is his witness and their witness, his message and their message, the Gospel of Jesus the Son of God, that will be the message of the church not only in its early days, but right up till the day of Jesus’ return at the climax of history. Once again, Jesus turns from the individual to the community. Sadly, Peter the rock was turned into Peter the Pope. Sadly the community of the church was turned into the institution of the church. Sadly the teaching and guiding responsibility of the church’s leaders became a weapon to exclude and condemn rather than a blessing to share.
Now of course we must have institutions, we must have leaders, we must be clear about the message. But Christians, like everyone else, have always been tempted to turn responsibility into power, to exclude rather than include, to condemn rather than understand. Faith in Christ does not yet make us immune to the temptations that come to us all.
It is not any particular denomination, any particular form of the church that will never die, but the community itself, the community of Christ’s followers that will continue in its perfected form right into the fullness of God’s kingdom. And it will continue to have the responsibility of holding open the gates of heaven by making known the wonders of God’s grace in Christ. And it well continue to have the responsibility of demonstrating the values of the kingdom, reflecting what God loves and avoiding what God deplores, living out all that is good and loving, and turning away from all that is contrary to the righteousness and compassion of God.
God is love. God’s draws people into his kingdom of love. God calls people into his community of love. Church institutions will continue to struggle to find ways to overcome barriers. But it seems to me that the real demonstrations of church unity start right here, where the people are. Unity and mutual love within St.Aidan’s. and within the parish. Increased unity and love and support between the various local Christian communities.
We’re doing fairly well here in Epping, especially with our local covenant, and our ecumenical activities. But there are always more steps to be taken. One question which occurs to me here at St.Aidan’s is whether there are ways to positively connect with the Korean church that gathers here. Hospitality and assistance is great, but I wonder whether there are ways to connect at a more personal level. Of course I don’t know all that is happening, but it may be worth thinking about.
Regardless of that, we go on: acknowledging the God who is love, opening up in faith to the love of Christ, seeking to live out the love of the Spirit in our life together, and reaching out with love to other Christians - and other people - in the name of Christ. Amen.