'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.