Sermon: Cathedral Eucharist - 22 June 2014

Preacher:

David Martin

Date:

Sunday 22nd June 2014

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Readings:

Matthew 10:34

Romans 6: 3,4

Listen:

Download Recording (MP3, 10.4M)

I am grateful to be preaching today as it is just thirty years since I was ordained to the privilege of serving in this cathedral.

May the words of my lips and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto thee, o Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

+ I have come not to bring peace but a sword. Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34.

We were baptised into his death....that, as Christ was raised from the dead, so also we might set out on a new life.  Romans, chapter 6, verses 3 and 4.

Our main reading for today is part of the pivotal chapter ten of St. Matthew’s Gospel. It tells us about the commissioning of the twelve disciples. It is a mission statement. This morning I have two objectives. I want to show how Christianity subverted the old order in a revolutionary way while keeping to the old law. Then I want to tell a very short story of how it stirred up the strife and division anticipated and recounted in chapter ten. The disciples are told to go from place to place proclaiming Peace be with you and inviting anyone to join their fellowship. They must expect to be bitterly opposed. The fellowship will break up through treachery and denial under the shadow of the cross. It will be renewed on the Day of Resurrection.

The New Testament is the most revolutionary manifesto in history. That does not mean it was laid out in advance from the moment Jesus began to preach. It is not a programme but varied responses to different situations. Jesus put his hand into the hand of his Father to discover how God’s kingdom might come. What looks inevitable in retrospect was open-ended in prospect. If Jesus knew it all then he did not share our humanity and his lonely agony in the garden makes no sense. Most of the inflammatory material lay around in Judaism for centuries but with Jesus it achieved a sudden maturity in a nationwide turmoil of despair and expectation of a new order under God. The disciples felt like those on whom the ends of the world had come. Their proclamation aroused joyful acceptance and vehement rejection.

 Revolutions begin by recalling established moral foundations. As a good Jew Jesus did not intend to create something called Christianity, and he began by restricting the message to the Jews. Yet by Matthew chapter twenty-eight we find the disciples commissioned to baptise all nations. The message shifted dramatically from Jerusalem to the universal city of God and its sound went out into all lands. We move from a chosen people under a covenant passed from generation to generation by birthright and circumcision, to a second birth. Our second reading from Romans chapter six declares anyone can join the universal community of the redeemed as the old self is buried with Christ in baptism to rise again renewed in his image.

Jesus affirms the law and its proper observances. He affirms the Old Testament command to love God and neighbour as yourself, which is quite demanding enough, and the commandments, like honour your father and your mother. Nevertheless we move from a primary loyalty to the covenant people, especially the family, to a loyalty where the dead are left to bury their dead. Christ, the moral huntsman, sounds the wake up call and he founds the world-wide brotherhood of those who seek first the kingdom. We move from outward conformity to the letter of the law to inward sincerity and the spirit of the law; we move from a message to the God-fearing insiders to one that includes the outsiders, the poor, the crippled, the blind, tax collectors, publicans, sinners, children and women; we move from kingship based on power to kingship based on service; we move from a God whose thoughts are not as our thoughts to a revelation of the divine dwelling among us, a real presence sharing our temptations and limitations under mysterious titles like Word of God, Son of Man and Son of God.

Eternity breaks into our settled times and seasons so we can start over again. The world to come knocks at our door now. We move from a kingdom of peace and righteousness up there in heaven, to a kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, where the blind see and the lame leap for joy. The kingdom burgeons secretly like a seed underground yet it is proclaimed from the rooftops to those with ears to hear. When faced with Last Things we turn to First Things and discover what really matters. Do not idolise what does not really matter. Shun the false empire of distracting and ungoverned desire. If your eye offends you pluck it out; if wealth or power blinds you to human need give all your possessions to the poor.

Who then can be saved? Well, anybody who turns his face to the light. The kingdom is yours for the seeking. Rest assured like a child in God’s love and care. Just trust. You are worth infinitely more than many sparrows. Don’t be anxious. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin. Temper prudence with the extravagant imperatives of love. When the pipes sound, know it is time to dance. There is no entry tariff or sliding scale, because grace and faith are sufficient for you, pressed down and running over... Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

I come now to my very short story of how a fellowship was created, how it was broken, and how it was restored. The good news spelled hope of a time when people would sit down together peacefully to share in love’s banquet. But – back to chapter ten – the bad news spells division and the agony of the cross.  

Jesus formed a table fellowship to share food together. There is no holier communion than this. At his last supper he expected renewed fellowship in the age to come: ‘I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom’. That was the moment corruption entered in and the fellowship collapsed. Jesus was betrayed by Judas in two intimate acts: he dipped hands with him in the dish and greeted him with a kiss. The disciples deserted him and Peter denied him.

It was mainly the marginal people, the women, who remained to watch and weep. It was they who received the broken body, with fringe disciples like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. It was they who rose up early to hear the first message of the resurrection: Why seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. Jesus was not immediately recognisable and those who loved him were told not to hold onto him. But the resurrection brought the fellowship together again as he breathed a new spirit on them of reconciliation, forgiveness and assurance. Peace be with you. .The terrible fracture of the last supper was lovingly repaired when he was known to them in the breaking of bread. Have you anything to eat? When they cast their nets into the sea they were suddenly filled to overflowing.They needed only to know only this: that he would be present for them and with them whenever and wherever they broke bread together and shared in the power of his spirit to the ending of the age.

Amen.