ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET
The Fourth Sunday of Trinity, 5th July 2009
Sermon preached by Fr. Gerald Beauchamp at the Parish Mass
Readings: Ezekiel 2. 1-5; 2 Corinthians 12. 2-10; Mark 6. 1-13
I've just come back from a holiday in Estonia, one of the Baltic States and as I was sitting in the departure lounge at the airport in Tallinn there was one of those moments that sometimes ends up on Candid Camera. My flight had just come in from London and was turning around to go back to Stansted. The passengers arriving left the aircraft on a walkway above those of us waiting to board the plane. Looking up we could see the stream of passengers making their way to passport control. Although we couldn't see their feet there was obviously some sort of step at the doorway between the corridor from the plane and the walkway above us. People began to trip. Those of us below became mesmerized by the antics of the people above us. There were some fairly spectacular near- misses as people did an assortment of twists and turns. The odd expletive could be heard. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, only some wounded pride as people realised how foolish they looked.
The notion of stumbling is a key idea in the New Testament but it's about much more than tripping up. The Greek word is skandalon which gives us the English word 'scandal'. In today's gospel Jesus has come home. It's the Sabbath and he's gone to the synagogue. He now has a reputation as a teacher. Mark doesn't tell us what Jesus says but we do get more information from Luke. In Luke's Gospel Jesus took the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read from it.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
... And (Jesus said) "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4. 19, 21)
Jesus applies the words of Isaiah to himself. Mark then tells us that the crowd begins to question what Jesus has said
"Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?"
And then he adds And they took offense at him. (Took offense = skandalon). So what was the crowd 'stumbling' over? Why were they scandalized?
Jesus was completing a process that had begun way back at the time of Isaiah. The prophets eight centuries before Christ had made an important shift. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel began to talk about personal responsibility. Major questions were not just for 'the people' as a sort of block (a corporate body) personified in great figures like the king but were also about individuals, ordinary people, everyone. The prophets saw themselves as individuals, individuals who had to stand up for God and sometimes against the masses. We heard something of the intensity of Ezekiel's experience this morning. Ezekiel is stood on his feet and addressed by God. The sins of the people are spelt out. In the verses that follow we're told that God gives Ezekiel a scroll on which his words are written that the prophet then eats. So Ezekiel internalised what God is saying in a most striking way.
Jesus goes one step further. Not only has he internalised what God has said through Isaiah but he is externalising (acting out) the message. Jesus doesn't just speak about poverty he lives the life of the poor. He lives among the dispossessed and the outcast.For them he has good news: release for the captives, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed. Why then were people in the synagogue so upset? Because they found it hard to understand that God has been revealed in humanity. Jews had no problem with the idea that God was for humanity but that he was revealed in humanity, especially in human weaknesswas another matter.
The prophets had begun to experience intimacy with God: an intimacy that often meant that God's words were sweet while human words were bitter. But Jesus experienced God's words as himself the Word. And as Word speaking God's words Jesus embodied the generosity of God, the love of God. And the love of God is for and evident in those who need it most: the people in poverty and captivity. And to reveal that Christ himself became poor and naked and a prisoner and endured the final irony of a carpenter who is nailed to a piece of wood.
We will never understand the gospel if we don't get this paradox: that weakness and strength go together in the Christian life. It's counter-intuitive. We are taught that weakness and strength are opposites. But God in Christ reveals that in the life he holds out to us strength is revealed through weakness. This isn't the helplessness of being a victim but the strength gained through the grace of God. If we give ourselves voluntarily and joyfully to the will of God then God's generosity will shine through us even in the darkest of situations. It's a strength that manifests itself through trial and tribulation.
Estonia has a troubled history. Over the years it has been ruled by Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Russia. The friend who showed me round took me to a village on the coast from which his mother had fled to Finland at the end of the Second World War as the Nazis were driven back and the communists took over. In the art gallery in Tallinn there are photographs of the period. I was moved by one that showed a row of empty prams along the edge of the Baltic. In fleeing people had to leave most of their possessions behind. Many set out across the sea in little more than rowing boats. I envisaged mothers going to the water's edge, taking their babies out of their prams and clinging on to them as they started their perilous voyage. I wonder how many made it to the other side and started a new life in a foreign country.
In the late 1980s as the old Soviet Union fell apart and communism waned in Eastern Europe Estonians began to crave their independence. The soviet government felt threatened. It called immigrant Russian workers on to the streets to protest in front of the parliament building in Tallinn. The Estonian opposition also called out their people. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets and faced each other. Neither side had weapons. There was no fighting. Instead the Estonians began to sing. They sang their national songs louder and louder. Finally, the communists left the streets and soon the government fell. Estonia along with the other Baltic States began to work towards independence.
It's when we know our weakness, when we become conscious of what oppresses us that we're able to gather strength to light a candle in hell, strike a match for freedom and roll back what has held us back. We draw on a moral force against which no tyranny holds sway. As we heard St Paul say this morning: power is made perfect in weakness. After the incident in the synagogue Jesus sent out his followers to carry out his message to the world. They weren't to carry it out just in word but to make it visible by the lives they lived. They were to have only just enough for their needs. They were to embody the message they proclaimed. They were like Christ to become words made flesh. So then, so now: may we be encouraged in our mission to scandalize the world in the words of a benediction written by the Franciscans
May God bless us with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships,
so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger
at injustice, oppression and exploitation,
so that we may work for justice for all people.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer
from pain, hunger, homelessness and rejection,
so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them
and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness
to believe that we can make a difference in the world
so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen to that. Amen.