the wilderness of Judea: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! He

Transcription

1 Sermon Sunday 8 December 2013 Lessons Isaiah 11: 1 10 St Matthew 3: 1 12 Let us pray. Be still. Be aware of the Holy in our midst, in this sanctuary. May we know the stillness only God can give, that depth beyond words, that intimacy known only to those in love Be still. Amen. The story of John the Baptist is vivid and immediately captures the imagination. With a strong, uncompromising message of repentance, John came preaching in the wilderness of Judea: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! He wore clothes made of camel s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. People came from all around, from Jerusalem, all Judea and the regions beyond. They came to be baptised in the River Jordan. Some of Jesus disciples started out as disciples followers - of John. The Jewish historian, Josephus, said that John exhorted the Jews to live righteous lives; in other words, practise justice towards their fellow human beings and piety towards God. Baptism, said Josephus, was understood as a consecration of the body: our life, the whole of life, was dedicated to God and honoured God. Religious people, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, came to John to be baptised. John called them the offspring of vipers! His challenge to them 1

2 was their claim that, by virtue to being the children of Abraham, they were certain of God s favour however they lived their lives, virtuously or viciously. It was a form of predestination; they were God s elect. The Baptist challenged this religious and moral arrogance. Instead he spoke of the kingdom of heaven; of the reign or dominion of God, being at hand. John didn t offer the people a new idea, but called them to a change of heart, an inner change. God s dominion, God s reign, must invade the human heart. Archbishop Desmond Tutu says: I know of no other way available to us beside prayer and meditation to cultivate a real and deeply personal relationship with God, our great Lover in whose presence we want to luxuriate, falling into ever greater and deeper silence. This is the silence of love, the stillness of adoration and contemplation the sort of stillness that is so eloquent when it happens between two who are in love. 1 John the Baptist called for a living relationship with the Holy from which would cascade humility, respect for others, justice and God s sacred peace. He said to the religious leaders of his day, Your theology is wrong! The River Jordan was a place full of meaning for the Jewish people. Every Jew knew that the people of Israel had travelled from Egypt to the Promised Land by crossing the Jordan. It was an image of restoration and redemption. John s 1 Desmond Tutu God has a dream 101 2

3 call or revival had religious, social and political implications. In the end, he was killed, beheaded for speaking truth to power. The distinctive dress of camel s hair with a leather belt is an allusion to the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, who also is to be found in the wilderness at the River Jordan. John was shouting in the wilderness and, speaking to the religious leaders, saying, I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. This seemingly obscure reference refers to Elijah but also draws us back to the Israelites first entering the Promised Land. In biblical mythology, the Hebrew people crossed the Red Sea or Sea of Reeds on dry ground because the waters parted. They also crossed the River Jordan in the same manner. God commanded each of the twelve tribes to take a stone as a memorial, a reminder to them and their children that God was with them, had led them, and when the people camped at Gilgal, they placed their stones together: they knew that God was in that place. John s reference to stones drew the people back to those days when the people knew that God was with them; they knew the reign or dominion of God was at hand. When the Baptist shouts Repent!, he means return to that relationship, to that way of living, to justice for all and piety towards God. John the Baptist stood in a long line of prophets, of people who called for justice and for piety towards God. Who are today s prophets? As we look 3

4 back over the twentieth century, surely we would include Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa, Pope John XXIII, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. He has only been in the post a few months, but I wonder if the current pope will turn out to be a prophet. Rush Limbaugh, described as the king of America s radio talk shows with a following of 15 million listeners, launched into a tirade against Pope Francis for what he called the Marxist views of the Pontiff. The pope recently denounced unfettered capitalism, trickle down economics and the world s socio-economic system was unjust. The radio king said the Pope was venturing into politics and he did not know what he was talking about. The Pope, it seems, is upsetting the Christian conservatives and (right wing) Tea Party activists. From where I stand, John the Baptist and the Pharisees come easily to mind. John s vision, John s call, was religious, social and political. In response to this verbal assault, the Vatican said, It does not seem worth the trouble of answering seriously. We cannot meet today, take about prophets and not reflect for a moment on the achievements and international stature of Nelson Mandela. I m not giving his obituary or a biography, so I want to close in on one aspect of his life: forgiveness. Archbishop Tutu said that Mandela went into prison as a very angry activist and he came out magnanimous, a true statesman. Tutu said that 4

5 some believed that victory in South Africa would only come when the last drop of blood was spilt. But, says Tutu, Mandela said We have got to forgive and, having suffered, having been in prison for 27 years, who was going to say to him, You are talking liberally. What do you know of suffering? I remember Richard Holloway once saying that he cried when he visited Robben Island and saw for himself the smallness of the cell in which Mandela had lived for over two decades. He cried because he thought of the love and forgiveness that shone from Mandela when he emerged from his incarceration. At the age of 46, during his trial in which he faced life imprisonment, he said: During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Are these not prophetic words? When Mandela was released from jail in 1990, he went first to the home of Desmond Tutu. Tutu has been asked if Mandela had weaknesses. In honesty, the Archbishop said that Mandela s loyalty to the ANC and their cabinet ministers sometimes let him down. Mandela s first wife, Evelyn, said their divorce happened because his passion for politics destroyed their family life. 5

6 He was not a saint but on release from prison he started the process for reconciliation rather than revenge. The Dalai Lama was exiled from Tibet when he was a young man and, although his monasteries were destroyed and many of his monks massacred, he has persistently refused to condemn the Chinese. Mandela was inspired by Ghandi. At the end of his life Ghandi said: Mine is not an exclusive love. I cannot love Moslems or Hindus and hate Englishmen. For if I love merely Hindus and Moslems because their ways are on the whole pleasing to me, I shall soon begin to hate them when their ways displease me, as they may well do any moment. A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair. Forgiveness can never be forced or required of us, but it is forgiveness, freely offered, which releases the victim and the perpetrator from an endless, bitter, downward struggle. The truth is that we are all part of the polluted stream. To a greater or lesser extent, we are all flawed with a capacity to hurt and diminish others. We all live by forgiveness. Forgiveness - first and foremost - is an acknowledgement and condemnation of a wrong and then it is a grace, an opportunity, a bridge we all need to cross at some time, to live a life freed from endless bitterness. In 1999, the journal of Spirituality and Health carried on its front cover a picture of three US ex-serviceman standing in front of the Vietnam Memorial in 6

7 Washington DC. One asks, Have you forgiven those who held you as a prisoner of war? I will never forgive them, replies the second one. The third man says, Then it seems they still have you in prison, don t they? Mandela understood this and, like Ghandi, his love for his country and for his fellow human beings, black and white, was not dependent on their goodness. He saw the flaws in us all and dared to dream of a free society with equal opportunities. Let me close with words from Graca, Mandela s third wife and the widow of the Mozambique President Samora Machel. Graca speaks of forgiveness being part of the culture of the African people but she also pays tribute to Mandela. She said: He symbolises a much broader forgiveness and understanding and reaching out. If he had come out of prison and sent a different message, I can tell you this country would be in flames. So his role is not to be underestimated too. He knew exactly the way he wanted to come out, but also the way he addressed the people from the beginning, sending the message of what he thought was the best way to save lives in this country, to bring reconciliation..some people criticize that he went too far. There is no such thing as going too far if you are trying to save this country from this kind of tragedy. Today is about prophets, about those who with courage articulate the vision of God. Nelson Mandela is surely among them. Amen. 7