Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Trinity

Sunday 28th August

Preached by Rev Paul Hewitt

You know, I was asked the other day was I following the cricket. And I had to confess that I hadn’t been at all. This was a terrible failing on my part, I thought, so I have started to get into the Fourth Test match at Trent Bridge. I know I could get completely consumed by it, if I hadn’t other things to do. (But, in all honesty, I never really got into cricket even though I tried to play it, very badly. I think it was getting a smack right in the eye with a cricket ball at Primary School that may have put me off!

Did you know that when Tiger Woods won the British Open last July, Brian Parker believed it to be such a noble win that he thought it was worth recording in the Preacher’s Book in the Vestry. So, for Sunday, the 17^th July, it says in the ‘Observation Column’,
“Tiger Woods won the Open at St. Andrew’s (5 shots!)”

We love our sport, and our sports personalities! I’m sure you know already that we have on our Parish List one of the greatest Irish Rugby players ever to put on a green jersey. It’s true. If you’re a hockey fan, you may be impressed to know that Christine’s sister is married to Jimmy Kirkwood, who helped Great Britain to win a Gold Medal at the Seoul Olympics. And I mention all this, particularly to draw your attention to an article in our Parish News, written by Johnny Park, all about Sam Smyth! A 1949 FA Cup Winner for Wolverhampton Wanderers, scoring many a goal, but on that day in particular, scoring, as the history books say a goal that is “still hailed as one of the finest goals ever seen at Wembley”. Isn’t that pretty impressive?

He will want me to stop at this moment! But what I often find among such sporting greats as these is that they have about them a very genuine modesty. It’s not pretend; it is truly self-effacing.

What I can’t work out is, how is it that among those who achieve so much, in sport or science or music or business, how is that they can show a genuine modesty and self-effacement, when others who have achieved very little by comparison can often be the most over-bearing and obnoxious of all people!?

It seems to me that this kind of self-effacement flies in the face of the teaching of a Psychotherapist called Gael Lindenfield, who runs a course in personal development and suggests that we should all write down a list like this, and read it through several times a day:

I have a right to feel angry when I am frustrated

I have a right to feel angry when I am disheartened

I have a right to feel angry when I am hurt

..when I am oppressed, and so the list goes on and on.

It’s not the language of the truly ‘great and the good’. And it’s not the language of the New Testament. Just look at our Gospel reading this morning. Here Jesus wants to turn everything inside out. When Lewis Carroll had become famous through his story ‘Alice in Wonderland’, he decided to follow it up with a second book in which he and his readers would need to learn how to think inside out. In ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’ he created a mirror image world. In order to get somewhere in that world, you discover it’s no good trying to walk towards it; you’ll look up presently and find you’re further away than ever. In order to get there, you must set off in what seems the opposite direction. And it seems as if Jesus is now asking of his disciples that they learn to think in a similar inside-out way.

I think what we are basically being called to do in these verses is to see things differently. These verses, I am sure, are for the very people who think they have to be assertive or superior, when they really have no claim to be.

I think for most us, including the great and the good, we have enough sense to realise that none of us is flawless. That none of us can claim immunity to making mistakes, even amongst those who have achieved so much in sport or business, or whatever.

There’s a story, of many years ago, in a hot and dusty country, about a rich man who had a servant whose job it was to carry water each day from a distant well to his master’s house.

The servant carried the water in two large pots, each of which hung from opposites ends of a pole he carried across his neck. One pot was in perfect condition and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of a long walk from the well. The other pot had a crack in it, and always arrived at the master’s house only half full.

For two years the servant delivered only one and a half pots of water to his master’s house each day. The undamaged pot was proud of itself. It had been made to carry water without leaking, and it did the job perfectly. The cracked pot, on the other hand, felt ashamed. It was miserable knowing it was not able to accomplish what it had been made to do. Still, it did the best it could, even if it was only half of what the perfect pot could do.

Finally, the cracked pot spoke to the servant one day by the well. “I need to apologise to you,” the pot said, “for two years now, I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws you have to do all of this work, and you don’t get full value for your efforts.” The servant simply said, “When we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

As they made their way back to the house, the cracked pot saw the gorgeous wild flowers beside the path and was cheered a little by their beauty.

When they reached the house, the servant said to the cracked pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path? Every day when we walked back from the well, you watered them. For two years I’ve been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. If you weren’t just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

Paul says we are all just broken pots of earthenware. But we carry within us a treasure, which is all surpassing. So there is hope, even for such imperfect people, to know that even our flaws (whoever we are) can be used to grace His table. Paul (again) wrote, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness”.