Sermon for Monday 21st September – online with the Anglicans connected to Skopje. Gospel: Matthew 22, 15-22.

Fr Leonard Doolan

 

Our village fisherman, Stavros, is facing a similar problem to all Greek fishermen. Due to warming seas a predator fish from the Red Sea has made its way into Aegean waters. The problem is that they consume the young fish natural to these waters, and they are poisonous if you consume them. The Greek Government has reached an agreement with Greek fishermen so that they get paid per kilo for catching these puffa fish in an attempt to control them. As if seals and dolphins feeding on fish stocks is not bad enough, there is this new danger in the seas around Greece. Ugly looking things too – though I have to say even the tastiest of fish are not always ‘good-lookers’ in the raw!

Thinking about ugly ravenous sea creatures, I am reminded that today, Monday 21^st is the feast of St. Jonah in the Orthodox calendar. Now there’s a vivid story, about someone being consumed by a great fish, usually referred to as a whale. Jonah is running away, turning his back on God’s call to him. He doesn’t want to face up to the reality of acceptance that God has for him, a purpose. He tries to escape on board a small boat but the ship’s crew cast him overboard as a last resort to save themselves from danger. Swallowed by a large sea creature, Jonah spends three days in the stomach of the creature until he is spewed out into safety, and acceptance that he can’t any longer avoid God’s call. Jesus uses the well know story by way of an analogy of his forthcoming death and resurrection.

 

Anyway, back to our friend Stavros the fisherman. This Summer when he has not found himself on his boat, he has been visiting some wild fig trees that he knows, and has been dropping off at our gate some of his different type of catch – figs, some of which are so ripe, sweet and juicy they are almost like a marmalade. Wonderful – and good for keeping you ‘regular’.

The Greek word for a fig is syka. Astonishingly the word sycophancy comes from the word for a fig. A sycophant is someone who seeks to ingratiate himself by telling someone else how wonderful he is, with excessive dollops of sweet soundbites – usually lies. On the negative side a sycophant could also be a slanderer, and in ancient Greece there used to be groups of professional sycophants. The word means literally a ‘reveller of figs’ and it is debated how the phrase has developed.

I’m going with the more recent English understanding – namely falsely flattering someone to gain personal favour.

I can think of three very recent public examples, all of which involve a certain country’s President. The first example is where Mark Rutte, the General Secretary of NATO, referred to that President as ‘daddy’ in an attempt to ensure continuing support for NATO; the second is when Maria Machado of Venezuela handed over her Nobel Peace prize to that President. Shortly afterwards American military operatives arrested and removed President Maduro of Venezuela – and guess who is the acting President in his place? The third involves the President of FIFA, who created a new Peace award and presented it to President Trump before the World Cup. Shortly after the World Cup finished Mr. Infantino got into trouble for trying to sell off parts of the World Cup organization to wealthy businessmen including, allegedly, those with business interests related to the Trump family. One thing is for sure – if you eat too many figs there is a consequence!

 

On several occasions the Pharisees try to entrap Jesus. In our gospel today they send their disciples along with the Herodians with a cunning plan.  They start off with the figs – the sycophancy – lying through their teeth. ‘We know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.’ That’s the softener; that’s the sweet juicy inside of the fig. Then the real motive emerges. They show Jesus a coin, a minted Roman coin – for they were under Roman oppression and subject to Roman authority. The question: should we be paying taxes to Caesar or not?

 

Only two things are definite in this life – death and taxation! To pay tax means acceptance of authority and legitimacy of a government or regime. So Jesus asks for the coin. It has on it the head of Emperor – Tiberius. His titles are there too. One title gives Jesus all the ammunition he needs to respond. That title is ‘divus’ – the Latin word for divine. The Roman Emperor was considered divine. So Jesus can effectively respond by saying ‘give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’. Only God can be ‘Divus’.

Clever response – and they are amazed at it too. Basically Jesus is saying ‘to God be the glory’ words handwritten by JS Bach on his manuscript of his great work ‘The Messiah’; words that are reflected in so many wonderful hymns and worship songs. In Greece it is a very common thing to reply to the question –everything ok? – with the words ‘Doxa to Theo’ – Glory to God.

The whole Christian pursuit is to seek the glory of God. Archbishop Michael Ramsey once said that the whole of St. John’s gospel could be summed up with the word ‘Glory’. Our worship and our daily lives should reflect God’s glory in the world. It is his glory that shines out in Holy Liturgy and in acts of mercy – the liturgy after the liturgy.

The Church often gets accused by certain types of politician of interfering in politics – but the church has no option, because politics is about the lives of citizens, of people. There is a difference of course when the church directly endorses or criticizes ‘party politics’ but it is sure that there are real issues where God’s glory reflected in human life will simply sit uncomfortably with narrow political systems and ideaologies. St. Irenaus said that the ‘glory of God is man fully alive’ – if he is right, and I believe him to be so, then the people of God must speak out on that manifesto, regardless of ‘party’.

It is through our worship, through social action to improve the quality of lives for people in the body politic, through our relationships with others, that we can reveal something of the glory of God – we can’t do this in this life ‘face to face’ with God, for we are reminded in the Book of Exodus that Moses will have God with him as he leads the people to the promised land – God will be with him, yes, but he cannot see the face of God and live. We will have to wait for another exciting episode in our lives for that face to face encounter.

There’s another phrase in English – ‘I couldn’t give a fig’. If you are interested maybe you could do some research on that. By the way, our fridge is now full of fig jam ready for the Autumn and Winter.