Sermon: Cathedral Eucharist - 22 February 2015

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 22nd February 2015

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Readings:

1 Peter 3: 18-end

Mark 1: 9-15

Listen:

Download Recording (MP3, 3M)

First Sunday of Lent

Hurrah for hypocrisy!

So writes Giles Fraser in his Guardian column,  before continuing it's a large club, but few people admit to membership. He doesn't see how it is possible to be a Christian and not be a hypocrite, why? Because to follow Jesus Christ is to be committed to a moral and spiritual vision for the transformation of the world; and guess what? We don't live up to it. But that isn't a cause for either despondency or complacency. 

It's a challenge to confront the reality of our human condition.  In Christ we know forgiveness and are called to repent and believe. That truth gives us the impetus to strive to live up to the demands of God's Kingdom; praying that the Spirit will equip and inspire us.

Lent is a time to be honest about our failures; but it not a time to give up because there's a gap between aspiration and reality.  For as Giles reminds us, the only way to get rid of that gap is to get rid of the aspiration. And that way real darkness lies.

On Ash Wednesday, we confronted the frailty of our mortal nature, our human propensity to make mistakes; we received afresh the assurance of forgiveness of our sin and the invitation to turn to Christ and remain faithful to our calling.  Prayer draws us back to God as our first love; disciplines of fasting make us consider how we direct our desires; acts of kindness deepen our engagement with others as we live out of God's abundance.

Lent calls us to renew our moral vision.  We consider afresh our relationships and what it means to be the body of Christ in this place, dedicated to the fruitful activity of the Spirit. Our waiting on God will also give us the courage to engage in the political life of our nation in the run up to the General Election.

On occasion, an audacious vision will lead to charges of hypocrisy; when the gap between our aspirations and our lived reality is acknowledged. And yet, we do not lose heart because our hope is rooted in the ultimate reality of God, and his power to save and transform.  Just as Jesus Christ knew our human weakness, so in him are we caught up in sharing the outworking of God's Kingdom.

Unlike the other Gospels, Mark plunges straight into Jesus' adult life - we move rapidly from baptism, temptation and the beginning of his public ministry within a dozen verses.  Mark distils and intensifies the good news of God with us; as we hear it afresh perhaps we are surprised, amazed or challenged. The story arouses our curiosity and demands our attention.  Today we are like those hearing it for the first time.

Will we take the risk of being addressed by Jesus afresh? He is one who identifies with us as we stand on the muddy banks of life's river, knowing the fragility of our human nature and depth of our longing for love and acceptance. He is the Father's beloved Son; the one who abides with God from the beginning.  And now as heavens are torn apart, the Spirit also descends; pointing us forward to the moment when a temple curtain will be rent asunder, as sin and death are defeated; pointing us forward to a time when that Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.

Will we take the risk of being drawn into this changed reality?  Mark declares that this Jesus is good news. This means more than a bit of pleasing information - it's a radical and important public announcement. As Rowan Williams puts it: This is - we are being warned - a deeply serious story, a world-changing story, whose ramifications extend well beyond the villages of Palestine. And if these events do indeed change the world - change the regime - then the central figure is someone who has the authority and the capacity to change anything and everything in the world.

Will we take the risk to be drawn into this story and to encounter Jesus Christ?  He will reveal our hypocrisy and forgive us; he will enlarge our vision and change us.  The one who proclaims the good news is the one who spent 40 days in the wilderness.  Jesus confronts the reality that tempts and overwhelms us; he goes to the heart of our inner turmoil, all that draws us away from God. His endurance is the source of our hope.

Jesus leaves the wilderness and begins his public ministry, declaring that the time has been fulfilled. God's Kingdom has come near - we glimpse it and we are to participate in it.  Repent says Jesus. Acknowledge the gap between reality and our longings, between our failures and our moral vision. Acknowledge that Jesus bridges that gap.  Acknowledge that the Spirit turns our hearts back to God. Repent. Change. Believe. Live.

That is the point of this good news: placing our trust in God means entering into the gift of abundant life. To echo the words of the marriage service, this is not something we enter into lightly or selfishly, but reverently and responsibly. As members of the body of Christ we are drawn into a relationship with God which is, to use biblical language, covenantal.

It is that language that makes sense of our reading from 1 Peter: it describes the way in which God reaches out to us.  Christ is the righteous one who brings us to God.  He overcomes sin and death; he also brings new life in the Spirit. God's love reaches down to the very depths of humanity - it touches the hurts and vulnerabilities that make us defensive; it heals the resentments and losses that embitter us; it waits patiently with us as we confess our hypocrisy.

Jesus Christ suffers, dies and rose again; he now reigns in heaven. In baptism, we belong to him. We are restored penitents; hypocrites who've been renewed.  As we gather to share in the living bread from heaven, we pray that our faith will be nourished, our hope increased and our love strengthened. We pray that our desires will be re-directed from selfish pursuits towards the service of a vision that is morally dense.  We pray that we will abide in and live by God's word. 

That has a practical outworking for each of us - not just in our private lives, but in our public engagement as people of faith. Our Bishops have issued a pastoral letter reminding us of our obligation to engage constructively with the political process.  Christians share responsibility with all citizens to participate in the democratic structures of our nation. We have to be part of the conversation in the run up to the General Election - the good news of Jesus Christ means that citizenship is a spiritual concern; theological concepts such as justice and compassion shape our pursuit of the common good. The pastoral letter is about our vision for a better world; it recovers the concept of virtue within communities, not atomised individuals; it articulates the contradictions of a society which celebrates equality yet denigrates the most vulnerable.

Their plea is that we are defended against the temptations to apathy, cynicism and blame, and instead seek - because we are disciples of Jesus Christ who long for a more humane society - a better politics for a better nation.

This Lent let us take the risk of being drawn closer to Jesus Christ; let us risk being drawn into the world changing response to good news; let us risk getting involved by engaging in debate.. Let us risk hypocrisy because of the depth of our moral vision; and pray that the Spirit will enable us to narrow the gap between reality and our hope. As citizens of a Kingdom that has come near: repent and believe; pray and vote.