'Radical Servanthood' - transcript of sermon Holy Trinity Eccleshall & St Chad’s Slindon

Sermon - Holy Trinity Eccleshall & St Chad’s Slindon

 

Isaiah 53: 4-12 and Mark 10:35 -45

Can I invite you to have a look around, and I know it is rude to stare but can you fix your eyes on someone.

Now here is a question – would you be willing to clean their shoes or boots?

From 1966 until 1971 I was an Apprentice Jockey in Newmarket and apart from the usual work the Apprentices who lived in the stables were often called upon to clean the Governor’s shoes and boots and those of his wife as well.

As well as living in Apprentices there were also a few Board Wage Men, stables lads, who also lived in.

We had a canteen for all our meals and some of the lads who lived out also made use of it, especially for breakfast in-between the first lot and the second lot going out for exercise.

On Christmass day after the horses were mucked out, fed, watered and made comfortable we had our Christmass dinner in the canteen.
This was served by the Governor, Bruce Hobbs and his wife.

Fun though it was it was all a bit of play acting. We knew full well that the Governor was still to be called Sir and his wife Mrs Hobbs. You might just get away with Governor or Mr Hobbs.  

Peter’s second Letter opens with these words…

From Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

In some translations, ‘slave.’

In the ancient world, the time of our Gospel reading, servants and slaves were so much part of the fabric of society that it would have been hard to imagine life without them.

Today we have all sorts of labour saving devices along with means of transport, cookers, cleaners, and means of communication.

In the ancient world you had slaves or servants to do all of this – if you were rich or at least reasonable rich.

And there were only two broad categories of people – rich people and poor people. 

Let me remind you of part of the Gospel story set for last Sunday, the story of the rich young ruler coming to ask Jesus about an assurance of being part of the Age to Come. (Eternal Life)

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

This was a radical rephrasing of everything the ancient world considered the natural ordering of things.

Keep this in mind and explore the Gospels and see how Jesus time and time again rephrases the thinking of the time. This was a hand-grenade dropped into the social fabric of that world.

Especially the Pharisee’s, who it would seem took their material wealth and blessings as a sign that God was pleased with them and was blessing them as He said he would if they were faithful to keep all the commands. 

From Deuteronomy 28…

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

It is only a short step from that to then consider those who were not blessed in material things had failed to keep God’s commands.

Again we find that idea popping up in the Gospel accounts.

Jesus challenges that at every level and demonstrates it by his actions, finding himself regularly as a guest of sinners, outcast and all manner of people.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

It is possible to read the Scriptures and along with Bishop David Shepherd conclude that God has a bias to the poor.

Theresa of Avilla whom the Church remembered last Monday wrote this…

How friendly all men would be one with another, if no regard were paid to honour and money! I believe it would be a remedy for everything.

Hold this up as a mirror and look again at the story from the Gospels.

Hold this up as a mirror to the passage from Isaiah, the suffering servant, scorned, mocked and ill-treated.

‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

I mentioned earlier about my time as an Apprentice Jockey and cleaning the Governor’s shoes and boots.

I also recall one occasion when they had a large dinner party and drafted in some of the lads to help with the washing up.

Now imagine if I had left the kitchen and gone into the dining room, sat down next the Governor and said, hello Bruce, hope we have something nice to eat.

Magnify that several times over and you have the ancient world.

And the not so ancient world…

We have only to look around some of the grand houses in our country and see the back stairs and tunnels so that the servants would not be seen by guests.

It is into this world that Jesus drops the ticking time-bomb of equality of all before the face of God. 

This is how Paul puts it writing to the Galatians…

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I remember living and working for Church Army in a Residential Conference and Holiday Centre in central London in the late 1970’s early 1980’s.

One of our popular weekends was called Life in London and we used the strap line of a certain film around at that time to describe the weekend, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

On the Friday night we took them for a walk that ended with us going underneath the Arches near Charing Cross, down into Trafalgar Square, up Whitehall, through Downing Street, into Horse Guards Parade, on into St James’ Park passing Buckingham Palace before making our way back to Victoria.

It never failed to amaze that in the eyes of God, those men and woman sleeping on the streets, often in their own filth, the Prime Minister and the Queen were all equally loved by God.

Over the years the Church can forget this radical rephrasing of human affairs; it certainly was a struggle for the early Church as some of the Epistles give evidence to.

But thanks be to God for people like St Francis in the 12^th century and many more who have reminded us about radical servanthood. 

Radical servanthood in the way described by Ignatius in the 16^th century…

Lord, teach me to be generous,
to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to look for any reward,
save that of knowing that I do your holy will.

 

But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

Radical servanthood that turns everything upside down or perhaps the right way up.

A few weeks ago I was preaching in St Peter’s, Rickerscote, an Anglo-Catholic Faith Community.

In keeping with their tradition they show deep reverence for the Sacraments of Bread and Wine, many of them believing it to be the Real Presence of Jesus.

My challenge to them was to consider this Real Presence being consumed – and now finding the Real Presence not only in Bread and Wine but in a brother or sister standing before them.

Therefore ought they not to give the same due reverence to the Christ embodied in that person.

St Benedict in his Rule on the reception of guest makes this exact same point…

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35). Proper honour must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal 6:10) and to pilgrims

I mentioned Peter’s second letter earlier and here is how his opening words continue…

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

…so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.

 

In the Eastern Church this is referred to as theosis – becoming like or sharing in the divine nature.

Irenaeus in the second century wrote…

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself

St Francis pushed this radical servanthood out into the whole of creation, referring to brother son and sister moon, seeing in creation God’s handiwork and in so doing seeking to call forth from creation a song of glory unto God the Creator who sustains all things.

Mother Theresa saw Christ in the poor and the forgotten in the slums of India and sought to serve them as she would her Lord and Saviour.

And you and I – who are we serving, how are we serving, when are we serving and why are we serving – whose boots are you willing to clean?

To help with that we need to put on our servanthood glasses that will help us keep our focus. 

Riding two horses - transcript of sermon St Anne's, Brown Edge 14th October 2018

Sermon St Anne’s, Brown Edge 14^th October 2018

Amos 5.6-7,10-15 Psalm 90.12-17
Hebrews 4.12-16  Mark 10.17-31

Do you prefer tea or coffee?

How do you like your tea or coffee?

Varieties of teas have been around for some time, but not so much choice over coffee.

Milk and sugar where the two main options.

Today of course that has shifted massively. I was in London when coffee shops really began to pick up pace with Starbucks, Nero’s and Costa’s popping up all over the place.

My personal preference is fresh coffee, usually an Americano, strong, no sugar with just a hint of milk.

Back in 1909 Henry Ford allegedly told his sales team that people could have any colour Model T Ford as long as it was black.

And who remembers the tangerine three-wheeler Bond Bug?

Today you can buy a smart car with hundreds of personal choices about colour and design.

And when it comes to phones and electronic gadgets you can spend a life time analyzing which one to get.

We had a bit of this recently when exchanging our car. It was all about gaining something and loosing something and making comprises and then hopefully making the right choice in the end.

Our Gospel story tells us about a rich young ruler who runs up to Jesus and kneels down in front him (what does that tell you) and with deepest respect addresses Jesus as ‘good teacher. He wants to know how he can inherit eternal life.

Remember here we not talking about eternal life in some kind of ethereal spiritual heaven, but as a good Jew, as this man was by all accounts, how could he be assured of living in the Age to Come.

Briefly, the Jews believed and still believe in two Ages, the Present Age and the Age to Come.

The Age to Come is spoken about cryptically, in poetry, in metaphor and by many and varied means throughout the whole of the Old Testament.

It would be a time when Israel would be free from oppression, (no more Romans) when nations would come to Mount Zion, from where the Law of the Lord would go forth.

A time of peace and prosperity, when the lion and the lamb would lie down together on God’s holy mountain.

And the young man wants to know how he can be part of that Age to Come.

Jesus gives a good Rabbi answer about keeping the commandments, referring in particular to the Ten Commandments, not all the clauses, and sub clauses and the sub sub clauses that had developed, particularly by the Pharisee’s.

We ourselves can be so familiar with the Ten Commandments that we can fail to notice what commandments are omitted.

The ones referenced are all to do with the horizontal level, how we relate to each other.

What Jesus omits are the first four which are primarily about our relationship with God and putting Him first and foremost above everything.

And then without fear or favour, with no compromise, with no gilding the lily or sugaring the pill Jesus puts his finger right at the heart of the problem with this young man’s concern.

The heart of this man’s problem was the problem of the heart.

His heart was wedded to his wealth, and no doubt his prestige and standing in the community.

He was trying to ride two horses which is never a good idea.

And it is in Jesus’ response to the young man that a radical rephrasing of the Ten Commandments is brought into sharp focus.

Remember the question, ‘how can I be assured that I will be a part of the Age to Come.’

And Jesus’ answer, once he has said that he has to let go of everything, is then an invitation to follow him and in him, Jesus, there is a true treasure.

Jesus has rephrased the first four commandments and brought them around to a focus on himself and the community of disciples he was establishing.

Sadly we know that the rich young man could not bring himself to that position

.

And having laid down the challenge Jesus doesn’t try and bargain with the young man or offer payment by installments – it is all or nothing, right here and right now you have to make this decision.

Jesus then speaks about how difficult it is for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.

Wealth in and of itself it not the problem, it is not money that is the root of all evil, but getting that correct, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil.

That was this young man’s problem, he manifestly loved his money, his wealth his prestige more that he did the offer of entering into God’s Kingdom by becoming a follower of Christ.

On the 4^th October the Church celebrated the life of St Francis and I watched snippets from the 1972 Zefferilli film, Brother Son Sister Moon.

A tad over the top and yet it brings home how much Francis was willing to give up to follow Jesus. How other rich young men also took up the same challenge as his rag tag community grew.

And it is community that is very important here.

Jesus didn’t simply ask the young man to impoverish himself and then make the best of his life as a pauper or beggar.

He invited him into a different kind of community.

Much the same, following Jesus example, St Francis invited people into a community of mutual love and support.

Today we begin Prisoner Week and a few weeks ago I was in HMP Stafford and preaching on a Sunday morning.

The men there have made choices and bad decisions that have led them to where they now find themselves.

In my sermon I said that they had an opportunity to make a different set of choices and one very important one.

They could choose to be ‘born again.’

And although that phrase is often mocked as denoting one type of Christian and of one type of Christianity, we should always remind ourselves that it is a solid Biblical metaphor used by Jesus.

It remains a useful picture, especially for those men and woman currently in prison. They can be ‘born again’ into a new way of life - born again into a new family –born again so that the past does not have to define who they are and determine their future.

Today and each and every day you and I will be making all sorts of choices.

Some will be life changing others more mundane.

One life changing choice was made by Sister Elizabeth Carr of the Church Army. 

I well remember her sermon in February 1977 at the Church Army Training College, then situated in Blackheath, London.

She spoke on this passage and talked about giving up on marriage and children and having a home of her own to follow God’s call into Church Army.

And yet she said, in her ministry as a Church Army Officer she was now in charge of a Mother and Baby Home for teenage mum's.  So, she had plenty of children to look after, she had also found herself living in all sorts of houses and found that she was part of a great family in Church Army and also as part of the wider Church.

We all face the same choice as this rich young ruler – are going to go the way of the kingdom of the world or the Kingdom of God?

It is as stark, clear and at one level as simple as that.

Chose to follow Jesus and then everything changes.

All our subsequent decisions become lined up with His life and power now living within us.

Or at least that is what we strive for as we grow in our Christian faith.

As St Paul said in the Letter to the Romans…

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within…

To help us with that we have the Word of God, the Scriptures and in our reading from Hebrews we heard this challenge and promise…

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. 

That may sound very scary and demanding – but then we read on…

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

When you next go into your favourite coffee shop or café I would not suggest you need to seek God’s will on what type of coffee or tea and you should have.

However if you have lined up your life with Christ you may well ask God to guide you to a certain seat where you might get into conversation with someone. Or even overhear a difficult time someone is having and you can quietly pray into that situation.

You might ask questions about the ethical sourcing of the coffee/tea and if they are using recyclable cups if they are take-away ones.

You certainly can chose to treat the Barista with kindness and courtesy.

The choice to follow Jesus is the most important choice we can ever make in our lives.

However, having made that choice and then seeking to line up our lives with Jesus and His community of followers, the Body of Christ, the Faith Community, the Church, further choices then follow.

In January many Gyms see a peak in membership applications followed by a drop in actual attendance at the gym as the months go on. There is only going to be a value if you regularly attend the gym, simply joining it does not make a lot of difference.

If the men in HMP Stafford make a choice to be ‘born again’ then that has to be worked out in their lives both while they serve out their sentence and then once back out into the community.

I made the choice to line up my life with Jesus on the 1^st January 1975 – it was the best and most important decision in my life.

If you make a choice to line up your life with Jesus today you will begin a journey where the choices you make and the decisions you take have to be lined up with the life of Jesus.

If you made that choice some years ago – then ask yourself how are doing in lining up your life with Jesus.

Are you occasionally trying to ride two horses – a bit of the world and a bit of God – it won’t work.

Jesus’ challenge to this rich young ruler remains the same challenge to you and to me today.

Who are you going to follow?

What choice are you going to make?

We are the Body of Christ...transcript of sermon St Peter's Rickerscote October 6th 2019

St Peter’s, Rickerscote 7^th October 2018

Genesis Ch2, verses 18-24;

Hebrews Ch. 2, verses 9-11;

Luke Ch17, verses 5-10

On Radio Stoke the other day they asked people to write in if they could remember  anything about their first day at their first job.

I didn't write in but I do remember it very well. It was on the 30th July 1966.

I had made a long train journey with my mum and step-father from Rochdale, Lancashire to Newmarket, Suffolk.  At Newmarket station I was greeted by two young stable lads and said goodbye to mum and step-father who turned around, climbed back on board the next train and made the long journey back home.

With the two lads I walked the couple of miles into Newmarket and into Palace House Stables. I was taken up to a room above the stable block next to the hay loft and shown my bed and chest of drawers. It was a fairly large room which I was to share with five other lads. 

I was called down for Saturday evening stables which were a frantic affair as the lads wanted to get their horses mucked out, fed and watered and bedded down in short order. It was Saturday night and there was much to celebrate - it was the day England won the world cup. 

I had never been in a stables before and never been near any horses. I remember the sights and smells. the clang of metal buckets echoing of the walls, the banging of doors, the loud and robust language of the lads who seemed to be hurrying and scurrying everywhere leaving me confused and wondering what on earth was I doing here having just turned fifteen and never been away from home before. It was a cacophony of sights, smells and noise. It was a whole new world where I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

One thing I did learn very quickly was that the horses were more important than you and they were your primary concern. 


 Coming in wet from riding out you had to attend to the horse before you went and grabbed some breakfast and went and prepared another horse to ride, often without an opportunity to change out of your wet things.

Five years’ on and I left the racing industry and went behind bars – to serve as a cocktail bartender in various hotels around Cambridge and Newmarket.

Again you learned quickly that it doesn’t matter how you feel or what is happening in your own personal life, you have to stand up straight, button up your jacket, push anything bothering down inside, smile and greet guests as if they are the most important people on the planet.

              

So, I get this little story Jesus told about the servant, or in some translations, slave.

Anybody here who has been in public service will also understand what Jesus is driving at here.

But in my experience in the stables and in the bar trade it was contractual. I was an indentured apprentice or a paid employee.

It was sir and servant – literally.

But then Jesus says…

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

This moves it from sir servant to sibling servant – we serve not out of duty or because of any contract or reward but as members of the Body of Christ, as brothers and sisters, as relatives in the same family of God.

 To quote St Ignatius…

Lord, teach me to be generous,
to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to look for any reward,
save that of knowing that I do your holy will.

As a Sacramental Faith Community let me put this challenge before you as a way of  reflecting on what it might mean to serve the Lord in each other in this sibling servant way.

It is in your tradition to show deep reverence, devotion and respect for the Blessed Sacrament.

This has an outward form of genuflection and signing yourself with the cross at significant moments.

Now, we come forward and take into our very bodies the Blessed Sacrament, the Real and Living Presence of Jesus, our Lord and our God.

Now this sacrament is en-fleshed, it is embodied and stands before us as a brother or sister in Christ.

So, if we offer such reverence to the Blessed Sacrament as the elements, how much more should we give deep devotion and respect to the Sacrament now it is embodied?

Many years ago I spent some time at Pricknash Abbey, no doubt known to some of you because of their incense.

Chatting to me the Guest Master said that according to the Rule of St Benedict he was supposed to lie prostrate at my feet and offer me every hospitality.

He then said, but generally today, we show you were the loo is and give you a cup of tea.

St Benedict’s Rule on the reception of guest says this in the opening words…

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35). Proper honour must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal 6:10) and to pilgrims.

Now imagine for a moment if we took that to heart as the People of God today in all of our Churches.

It may be strange if we genuflected before each other, although that is not a bad thing to do from time to time. 

But what we can do all of the time is genuflect in our hearts and in our minds when we come before a brother or sister.

And I don’t want to develop this now but some would argue that this is the right behaviour towards everyone and towards the whole of God’s creation. It is worth pondering on that a little further at some time – perhaps thinking of St Francis whom we remembered last week.

And it is this radical inclusivity, the honouring and the sibling serving each other that is a true manifestation that having received the Blessed Sacrament it is now doing its work of transformation.

…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4.13

What is called Theosis in the Orthodox Church, a transformative process whose aim is likeness to or union with God.

Think about it…

Shall I take the Body of Christ and curse it, or slander it, or mistreat it or grumble against because I didn’t get my way.

I hope and trust you would say no and a thousand times no.

Yet sadly we do find ourselves doing these very same things.

When we mutter, groan, moan and gossip about our brothers and sisters of the Faith.

When we fail to see Christ standing before us with an opportunity to serve the Christ that is in them.

Then we are dishonouring the Body of Christ.

As long as we act more like a religious social club than the Body of Christ, the less likely we are to have any real effect in our communities.

I am passionately convinced that the hope for our nation is the local church – when it is self-sacrificing and self-giving and not self-serving.

I am passionately convinced that if we could but demonstrate such a way of life to a watching world then they would take more notice.

Let me close with a quote from Bishop Jack Nicholls…

“There is nothing like the local church when it is working right. Its beauty is indescribable; its power is breath taking. Its potential is unlimited.

It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources to those in need, and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. 

It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed and offers belonging to the marginalised of the world. Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.

Still to this day, the potential of the local church is almost more than I can grasp. No other organisation on the earth is like the church. Nothing comes close” 

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Come my brothers and my sisters, let us eat and drink of the Lord and then let us go out into the world proclaiming God's love for all of creation. Amen