Sermon for the Sunday before Lent

Sunday 22nd February

Preached by Rev Brian Parker

Facing reality

There were three things that, as we say, struck me over the last few days.

First I visited the Holocaust Exhibition in the Imperial War Museum in London. It was not so much an exhibition but more an experience. An experience that was disturbing and horrible.

Of course it’s all confined to history isn’t it? Not so. In that day’s newspaper I read about the rise in anti-Semitism in Germany, how young Jewish footballers had had to cancel a game because of the threat of violence from yobs.

I also read about the confrontation in the Lancashire town of Burnley between the Leader of the Opposition, Michael Howard, and people he described as ‘thugs dressed up as a political party’.

And we all know about the bigotry and racism on the Donegall Road in Belfast and in other places here at home.

Anti-Semitism, racism, sectarianism, and bigotry – they are all in our midst. They are a terrible reality in the 21^st century. The lessons of history are not being learned.

Then I watched the BBC TV Let’s Talk programme last Thursday night.

Overall the programme presented a very healthy debate on education. The speakers looked with some expertise and experience at the three systems now in place here – integrated, catholic and state.

It seems there is much good practice in our schools. Pupils are learning about different cultures and identities. But not together, not really.

The catch phrases and the noble sentiments trip easily off the tongue.

“We are striving to value diversity and respect for others”.

Teachers are to be commended for their dedication.

But the reality is that when the children go home there is division and a sense of identity that is exclusive and resistant to change.

Moreover it came across during the TV debate that within the three education systems, while there is a limited amount of interaction, we just don’t yet have the will to get together and construct an education system that embraces all our children.

Of course we must hold to and respect our identity and culture but we must do so in a way that respects and learns from other identities and cultures.

Today the scars of mistrust and sectarianism after 30 years of mayhem and murder continue to fester. That’s the dangerous reality.

A third reality hit me at the launch of “The Sweet Poison” – a video and information pack produced by CMS Ireland.

The story was familiar. The Aids pandemic in Africa is out of control.

We were shocked at the images on the video. Here were people in terrible pain and suffering and without any hope of survival – many of them children.

Of course we had heard it all before. The danger is that we get more complacent about it by the day.

The video demonstrated that much relief aid is getting stuck in bottlenecks or worse, it is being pilfered and money siphoned off by crooked and corrupt regimes.

Moreover it showed how ignorant the people are about the nature of the disease and what a ‘sweet poison’ promiscuity is in a society adrift from any moral anchors.

The people need to be educated in how to fight this disease and not just with medicines but with faith and a moral code of responsible behaviour.

But that is a massive challenge. And all the time western media are pouring pornographic material into the African TV networks, polluting young minds and daily adding to the chaos.

So the stark reality is that millions of people in Africa not only lack the essential care and protection from AIDS but also the moral fibre and faith to recognise the danger and to take action against it.

Isaiah’s vision of the Kingdom of God on earth was in part about facing up to the reality of the human condition.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me. He has sent me to bind the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom and to release the captives from darkness”.

There is a deep darkness in the soul of any society that breeds racism, divisions, hatreds and corruption.

Jesus understood that releasing people from such darkness was his mission.

When he called his disciples and designated apostles He immediately shared that mission with ordinary people – people like you and me.

Ordinary people – people in fact facing serious divisions and inherited hatreds. Look at Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector.

Politically they were miles apart. They despised each other. Yet there they are ‘designated apostles’ – together under the authority of Jesus, at the start of a very steep learning curve.

Jesus was inaugurating a new era – an era that did not embrace their traditional hatreds.

Many of these apostles we read little about after their commissioning.

But we can deduce from what is recorded that they went out into their world with a universal message of Good News – God in Christ redeeming us all.

They went out – sent, by the Risen Christ with compassion in their hearts, freedom in their souls and hope of the Kingdom on earth.

They brought news of power to change and new possibilities in a world of so many impossible challenges.

What did they do?

They called a nation to repentance; they sat at table with tax collectors and sinners, they debated the issues with Scribes and Pharisees, they challenged injustices; they lifted the heavy burden of religiosity from the shoulders of the people; they touched with compassion and care the sick and afflicted – even reaching out to the lepers, the AIDS sufferers of their day.

That was what being designated an apostle demanded.

Then it was the poverty of oppression and slavery – today it is racism and injustice and the grinding slavery to addiction and abuse.

It’s been said that in the Christian mission there are no volunteers for Jesus takes the initiative and chooses people to do what needs to be done.

So your task and mine arises from the authority and mission of the Risen Christ.

And Jesus said –‘go therefore’, now and do what you can and do it to counter and prevent such things as racism, community divisions, injustices and human suffering.

As Bishop Harold Miller is fond of saying these days –“Just do it!”

Face the harsh realities in faith, do what needs to be done, day by day, as neighbour to neighbour, as teacher to pupils, as carer to victims, as friend to the friendless, as counsellor to the broken, as healer to the sick, as politician to the people, as servant to all.

“Just do it”.

Sense the immediacy and urgency in the divine commission, this shared mission with Christ.

Bishop Tutu, who faced with great courage the harsh realities in his society, said recently: “Christians are called to demonstrate their repentance by how they treat the most vulnerable; the orphan, the widow, the alien. How they give justice, deliver the needy when they cry and the poor man who has no helper.”

So we say that’s an impossible task? We say that’s a learning curve that is much too steep? That’s a bridge we need to cross that is simply too far, too much to ask?

Well in Christ such responses are just not good enough.

“Just do it”.