Sermon preached at a Zoom service with the congregation of Skopje in the Republic of N. Macedonia. Service is for the 4 th Sunday of Pentecost
Preacher: Revd. Canon Leonarad Doolan
Readings: Gen 21, 8-21; Rom 6, 1-11; Matt 10, 24-39
‘What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.’ Matthew 10, 27
It has always been a fascination of scholars and faithful enquirers to know what any ‘secret teaching’ of Jesus might be. Such speculation has led at various times to turbulent relationships within the history of the Church – especially with that heretical group known as the Gnostics. They are even referred to in the New Testament – the people who claim to have some special mystical ‘gnosis’, knowledge, ( handed on secretly from Christ.) 1 Timothy 6, 20-21
I suppose it is fair enough to ask the question what else did Jesus say and do that is not recorded in any of the four gospels? We are curious, inquisitive searchers of material.
The words I quoted from the gospel of Matthew are set within a passage that is not so easy to understand. Even a bald man like me is glad to know that God knows even the hairs of my head! However, also in this passage we hear of challenging messages – I have not come to bring peace but a sword; those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10, 39)
Messages like this are generally considered as a group as the ‘hard sayings’ of Jesus. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild is hardly the image conjured up when he tells us about the disintegration between blood relatives and relatives through marriage caused by the blade of his sharp message – though in reality we can make a pretty good job of this ourselves, without any outside influences.
Set alongside the gospel reading, the OT and NT readings are not easily digestible either. So the preacher has a job in hand to try and interpret all of this. Or the preacher might try to avoid doing so. Let’s see how it goes.
‘What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.’
When I hear this my mind travels to Jerusalem, and to the pilgrimages I led as a parish priest. On the itinerary there is always a visit to the Eleona Church on the Mount of Olives, and is one of the 4th century basilica churches founded by Empress St. Helena, mother of the Emperor St. Constantine.
It is also called the Pater Noster Church, the Our Father Church. In a small cave there is the site believed to be where Christ responded to the request of his disciples, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’. In this small underground cavern, seated with his 12 disciples, Christ then proceeds to tell them, in the quiet secrecy of the place, the words we know as the Lord’s Prayer.
It seems to me that never was such a great example of bringing into the light something Christ said in the darkness, and now it is proclaimed on the rooftops. Never was there a prayer that more identifies the world’s Christians, as followers of the One Lord. Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Protestants – whether Pentecostal, Baptist, Methodist, or whatever, say this prayer.
What I always loved at this holy site is the stones set around the outer wall of the compound, on which is carved the words of the Lord’s Prayer in dozens of languages – including, believe it or not, Doric, which is a Scottish dialect from the NE of Scotland.
Oor Faither in heiven, hallowt be Thy name. Doric speaking Scots must be thrilled about this- however few they are. I actually knew a man from Cullen in Aberdeenshire who spoke Doric.
To scripture – Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah. You will recall that the story tells us that Sarah was barren and elderly, and by God’s miracle Abraham is told that she will have a child. Abraham scoffs at the idea, but it is fulfilled, and Isaac is the fruit of her womb. But Abraham had a son already – the child was the offspring of a slave girl called Hagar. Potentially this creates problems and awkwardness. Such situations often do even in our own time – especially at the reading of Last Wills and Testaments. The scriptures don’t seem to treat this
reality as if it were an issue. We should remember that the Abrahamic period predates the injunctions towards monogamy, so culturally Abraham was not really doing anything controversial.
Anyway the result is that Isaac has to be the favoured one as he is the issue of Sarah – and as a result of the promise that God has made with Abraham to be the father of many nations. Hagar and her son are given provisions and sent on their way to live eventually in the wilderness of Paran.
This son’s name is none other than Ishmael, who gives his name to the Ishmaelites. I don’t need to tell you that it is through Ishmael that Muslims claim their descent from Abraham. Some of you may know much more about this than I do – but you can imagine it is part of the historic conflict.
St. Paul uses some of this material as he argues the case between the religion he departed from and the faith he now espouses – his faith in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.
In Galatians 4, 21-31, where naming both Sarah and Hagar, he contrasts the distinction between slavery and freedom. He uses them as an allegory between two covenants, – the covenant in the law, and the covenant in grace. One child is born according the law of the flesh, the other of the Spirit. He develops this in his arguments about slavery in the old dispensation, and freedom in the new dispensation under Christ. We can synthesize his argument by saying, The law kills but the Spirit gives life.
The challenge of this life in the Spirit – and a challenge that is set before all of us who call ourselves Christian – is that we cannot be just followers of the Jesus of the empty tomb. We must be followers of the cross. St. Paul makes it very explicit. Even in his day – before even the first gospel is written – baptism is the outward sign of adhering to the life of Jesus. Paul urges us to accept that in being brought to new life in baptism we are passing through death – Christ’s death on the cross. The old self in us – the flesh, the law, the slavery is crucified and we emerge powerfully as new people of the Spirit, grace and freedom. This news is dynamite to those who had been nurtured in Judaism. Remember, the first to hear the good news are followers of Law of Moses.
On one of his travels to Corinth Paul encounters someone called Crispos. He had been a leader of the Jewish synagogue in the Greek city of Corinth. Now though, Crispos has passed through the death of Christ and now walks in newness of life. This same Crispos – who knew St. Paul and who is a first generation Christian believer is sent from Corinth to be the first bishop on the island of Aegina, the island where I live. Isn’t that mind-boggling. So St. Paul tells the Romans what this Jesus Way is all about – You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.
So to end back with our gospel reading from St. Matthew, the hard words may be just a little more understood – but they are still hard words. Christ has come not to bring peace but a sword. There is no getting away from the fact that to be a Christian is no easy task – there can be no lip service when we speak of the cross. It is challenging, and it is divisive, even within families. There are realities in our world where Christians simply have no option but to say ‘not in my name’ And such divisive challenges will not diminish with the unsettling use of worldly power in the hands of a few tough men; with the rapid increase of AI which will bring many benefits, but which threatens also what it is to be truly human; with countries one by one introducing legislation for assisted dying at the end of life, ending a centuries old doctrine of Christian belief. And you will be able to think of many more examples where a son is set against his father, a daughter to her mother etc, etc.
The key for the Christian life is found in another little phrase of St. Paul – ‘for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ’. (Colossians 3,3) That is the mystery, the quiet secret to our very identity. This is the mystery of our relationship together in the presence of Christ who teaches us how to pray, and who says
‘What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.’
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