SERMON FOR ST JAMES’ DAY | 24.07.2016
It’s a long time since I have played hide and seek! Little kids love it, the excitement of chasing around until they find the person they are looking for; somehow looking for things seems to be built into their DNA. It is one of the signs of ‘eternal youth’ when older people are still enjoying discovering new things and taking delight in fresh experiences. But it does take effort!
And a willingness to ‘let go and let God’; a willingness to try and see connections – and sometimes to know that we never will…
Each St James’ Day I try to look back on the year and to see what God has been trying to say and do with us as a Church community. I sit down with the Church membership list and try to see how well people have weathered the ups and downs of life and to reflect on how the bigger pieces of the jigsaw have evolved over these last twelve months.
Inevitably big events – like the sudden death of our organist, Anthony Hill, on Thursday, loom large. Anthony was a hugely faithful servant of St James’: he was always here, on time and well prepared for his role. And yet, looking back over his emails this week there were also his generous apologies when things didn’t quite go right and his quiet appreciation of services which had moved him. He really did feel very much at home here at St James’.
But I couldn’t help but see his death as the mirror for Lillian Ladele’s sudden death at the end August last year. They stand like two book-ends for all the intervening events that have filled this demanding year.
It is hard to remember that, on St James’ Day last year, we had so pleased to be able to sponsor five new adult confirmation candidates and there is a lovely photograph of Lillian being hugged by Bishop Adrian in Church as part of that day.
And in between? Hidden from view maybe, but very demanding, the work by the PCC to get all the legal stuff for the re-ordering finally approved so that, when the green light finally came, we could get the scaffolding erected in Church and the upgrading completed in readiness for our 140th celebrations on May 15th – a gloriously warm day of celebration with a big parish lunch outside and the bouncy castle much in demand.
Then, to our great delight there were unexpected requests by six Enquirers to start the Basic Christianity course last January - in an off year when we don’t usually run the course. Divided into several groups we spent hours and hours teasing out how God was calling them to discipleship and we celebrated several baptisms along the way – looking forward to their Confirmation in the Cathedral this coming November.
But it didn’t quite turn out as we hoped. Quite independently, every single one of them faced extraordinary personal challenges which made it impossible for them to go ahead with the course as planned and we have had to postpone the Admissions to First Holy Communion which were organised for today…
I don’t need to go on and on but it is hardly any wonder that St Paul in our second reading talks about ‘treasures in clay jars’. Paul’s own ministry suffered all these setbacks – and far more besides. However difficult our work, at least we are not likely to get arrested, stoned, beaten and imprisoned. Travelling thousands of miles throughout Asia Minor he also revelled in new Christians coming to faith – only to see them fall by the wayside when the going got tough. Not for nothing Jesus told the parable of the Sower, scattering seed on the path, among the weeds, on stony ground and on good soil.
His point was that 90% of the seed got wasted! What kept the farmer going - what kept St Paul going too – was that the results from the remaining 10% which were brilliant! Was it enough to make the whole project worthwhile? Of course it was - but you couldn’t but help wondering ‘but what if?’; what if they had all responded to Jesus’ invitation.
(2 Corinthians 4: 7f) But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; struck down, but not destroyed. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
And that is how it is: we plan, we work, we offer, we encourage – but we might well find that all that planning comes to nothing. Why? So that we learn that this not our work but the work of Jesus.
And it’s his secret plan and we are being called to be faithful to the kind of person that Jesus is. And from all accounts he never does things the easy way! Unlike us he never forces, never twists arms, never manipulates or makes us feel unduly guilty. As the Gospel acclamation reminded us: I do not call you servants but friends because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. And then he leaves it to us!
But of course you and I need a bit more encouragement than that! We like to see a reward for our efforts and to get a pat on the back – at least occasionally. On the Diocesan mailing this week was the announcement by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, that he is due to retire next February. And in his letter he did what we all do: he listed all the things that he felt had been most successful in his time in London: more people training for ministry, more churches opened, a good bank balance etc etc. Now Bishop Richard has been around in the Diocese as parish priest, Bishop of Stepney and then as Diocesan bishop, for almost 35years and has done a great job in many ways, much of it unseen. But I don’t think anyone could accuse Bishop Richard of undue modesty or that he was riddled with self-doubt!
I don’t know what you made of the words from the second verse of our first hymn today, written by Jerry Godwin of West Seattle:
Lord, curb our vain impatiencefor glory and for fame;
may we learn to be pilgrims who glorify your name.
Which is exactly the thrust of Jesus’ attitude to James and John in today’s Gospel. They (or at least their mother) desperately wanted them to have a front row place in heaven.
It wasn’t that they were bad people and shouldn’t have been there on their own merits – but that’s not the issue: they may or may not have been. But what James and John were longing for was recognition, the feeling that someone noticed and approved of what they are doing.
And Jesus is utterly blunt: the only way to get the final pat on the back that we all long for - is to share in the desperate feeling that everything we have done has been a complete waste of time. That is the greatest form of suffering. It is the cry of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamane and on the Cross. Was I right: have I done what God required of me or have I fooled myself into thinking that I made the right choices?
The picture on the front of the pew sheet today – showing our statue of St James behind scaffolding bars in May – is there to pose the question: how much confidence do we have in the way of life that James finally adopted? How much are we prepared to give up to help others; how much are we willing to do for no reward whatever?
The reason why James was picked out by Herod for execution, as we heard in today’s first reading, was that he was one of the chief leaders of the Church in Jerusalem and among those who organised famine relief during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. James was therefore an irritating pest and best got rid of.
And we might say: what a pathetic end. What a waste. Or was it?
Because it has been the experience of the Church that quiet, selfless loving and giving is never wasted, never lost. It is from within that 10% that progress will be made and our mission will bear fruit.
But we may never know about it or see the results of our labours.
Undoubtedly, this year has been especially baffling and while the mix has had both ups and downs, there have been a few too many sadnesses for us just to shrug our shoulders and say, That’s life!
So we need to go on ‘in faith’. We need to go on trying to bring St James out from behind the scaffolding and do what he did: let go and let God -doing our very best – and then leaving it in God’s hands.
Perhaps we will find the hidden answer to our questions. Or maybe we won’t… Our job is to trust God and to carry on - regardless.