Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Trinity 29th August 2021: JAMES 1:17-27, MARK 7

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

 

May God be on my lips and in all our hearts AMEN

Usually at this point in the year, I ask all of you whether you have had a good summer. First of all, we are not all present and.secondly, you may not have been able to get a break at all. It has been a very, hot, hard summer following on from a difficult winter. God does not promise us an easy way and we need to be wise and listen to His word for our world and ourselves.

One of my summer jobs was to get my car through KTEO, its biennial MOT. Now, if you don’t know my car is the battered blue one, usually parked in the side street next to St Paul’s. My husband flatly refuses to take it for its inspection and indeed why should he? My son has a few choice words to say too as it used to belong to him but he has a spanking new one now. I have no such qualms as it gets me from A to B and I really to get to go to some unusual and outlying places as Deacon. At the moment in charred and burnt surroundings after the fires.

Outward appearances, however, can be deceptive, as we know. My vehicle passed again with flying colours, as I try and keep it well maintained and reliable, legal and ready for service.

This reminded me that the vicar where I did my parish placement in Margate used to haul in his parishioners for a regular spiritual MOT, an overhaul. I wonder how would you feel about that? Don’t worry, we are always available to chat to but I don’t think we are going to be rolling this idea out any time soon. I was not privy to these conversations as they were confidential but I am pretty sure they were helpful as people kept coming back. I know how supportive my own Spiritual Director is and has been during these difficult times and I also know how good it is to give ourselves a spiritual check up on a regular basis.

Also, I want to thank you all for your concern and prayers in the recent fires when we were evacuated from our village. Well, let me tell you a bit of the backstory now. My son came up to fetch me in an emergency dash in the middle of the night but my husband refused to leave even though he had had recent surgery. However, he came down the next day only to find we could not return at that point which was actually a blessing. God was good our village was mainly spared as the wind changed direction but others were not so fortunate. I did feel covered in prayer and I took refuge in God remembering the verse from Psalm 57 set for that day and the Celtic liturgy of St Oswald whose feast day it was.

 

Therefore, I have been appreciating once again the Epistle of James as a template and guidance for church and personal spiritual life. I recommend it. We rather value versatility and unpredictability in people. To say someone is predictable is to imply they are boring.  I actually suspect that reflects the comparative security we have in the West although that has been rocked in several ways in recent times- by financial crisis, COVID, the heat, snow and latterly fires, earthquakes and the  crisis  in Afghanistan.

Most of us here know where our next meal is coming from even if no longer when our next holiday will be or when we will see dear ones again. We can afford or even long for the luxury of finding predictability boring, especially in precario. We do not like it that climate change is impinging on our comfortable way of life rather than being some far off phenomenon involving others and distant lands, It is coming close to home. All these natural disasters and manmade catastrophes force us to sit up and take notice. We fear financial ruin, unemployment and homelessness and more. No wonder God’s immutability is so highly prized in so many parts of the world.

Perhaps we are beginning to find that stability and reliability is not so tedious after all, even to those who like variety. Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same. ‘All may change but Jesus never glory to his name.’ runs one chorus.

 

These verses we heard today from James are in praise of unchangingness, in God there is no change. Things from outside cannot make God react uncharacteristically. Light does not force strange shadows from Him, making Him appear what He is not. God does not have to return to the drawing board each morning with His design and alter it to fit unpredicted events, and we cannot force God’s  hand by shouting at Him. However, we can come before him in lament, weeping and wailing for our planet and all we have done to contribute to its destruction. God bottles up all our tears.

 

But if you feel that the language used in James quickly degenerates into a description of God’s master plan which seems to leave no space for genuine human freedom then read the rest of the chapter. He is not saying that God has some gigantic crystal ball in which he says everything that will ever be. Nor is he saying that we are pieces on a giant celestial chessboard.

No, the essence of what the epistle writer James, probably the half brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem, is saying is that nothing, absolutely nothing can change the character and nature of God, our Creator and Creator of the planet and universe. Nothing can make God act out of character. God is so completely Him or herself and at home in Himself and at ease that he / she has the genuine freedom and contentment to be who He She is always. His ways are not our ways – he is not trying to gain attention, power, or raise a laugh. God is wholly dynamically content. If only we could see, understand and be even a pale imitation or reflection of that.

Much modern Christian writing about the immutability of God has focused on and assumed that it makes God less personal, less like Jesus but perhaps God’s unchangingness means he does not have to waste time on worrying about himself at all, unlike our own human fluctuations, fragilities and volatile moods. God is utterly available to us faithful and present always everywhere. We have to release all that holds us back to return to him since for us in our human condition, some worry or insecurity always impinges on some level to a greater or lesser degree.

 

In order to reflect God’s nature we have the example of Jesus. Remember James says we have to be doers not just listeners, although it is a good idea to listen first and pray. Mark chapter 7, verses from which we heard today , where Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees says that it is not enough to show outward appearances and go through the motions. Our inside feelings and thoughts must reflect what we do and the true nature of God.

Back to my battered car at the beginning of this sermon. Appearances are deceptive and we are expert at deceiving ourselves and others by wearing a mask- and I am not talking about the surgical or cloth ones that have become part of our lives recently. If we are right with God and our true selves then our lives and how we conduct them will naturally demonstrate that. And that is a radical gospel imperative to live out. We are not just going along with the flow and secular or some religious niceties, we are looking under the surface and the skin to see what is God given and how we can release the God given potential in ourselves and others.

Rather than simply welcoming those who look like us, what if we combated favouritism and reached out to the margins? Who might God bring before us? As we continue in these strange times, how can we embrace church and others differently just as Christ did, showing his care and love? How can we include and invite others?

As we do this as individuals and collectively, we reflect our radically just Saviour who loved us even though we were strangers. And through our acts of everyday justice and mercy, may the church in the here and now be a foretaste of the coming kingdom where diverse multitudes- every nation tribe, people and language have equal access to the throne of grace.  AMEN