Cathedral Sermons
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 4, 2010
Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Galatians 6:7-16; Luke 10: 1-11,16-20
Grant us, Lord, to know your will for us and when we know it, the courage to carry it out; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I was recently looking through my library, and came across a copy of the late Victorian novel, “The Wizard”, by Sir Henry Rider Haggard. This story (published 1896, and set probably a decade or two before that) has some similarities with the history of Uganda – though I don’t think Thomas Owen, saint and martyr (as Haggard describes him on the last page) has any particular prototype. Though the book is, in a sense, the history of Owen, it is really about Hokosa – the “Wizard” of the title – and his conversion.
This is the work which shows most strongly Haggard’s Christian beliefs – so doubtless it will be among his less popular books in this atheistic age (though the author of “King Solomon’s Mines” is rarely seriously regarded today). Owen himself is saintly but weak. His real contribution was not so much in bringing Christianity to the Amasuka people – though that was no mean feat – but in his death as a Christian martyr at the hands of the man who became his greatest disciple. It was not just what Owen did, but his example, which counted.
When I first read this novel I was moved to ask myself whether I would have acted as did the Reverend Mr Owen, who gave up a comfortable life as a country rector in England, to be a missionary in Africa. He went into the wilderness knowing that, in so doing, he was risking his life to carry the good news of Jesus to a new community of unbelievers. Though a work of fiction, the situation in which the missionary found himself was not uncommon in the nineteenth century, and has its equivalents today, as it did in the time of Christ.
In today’s Gospel reading we are hold how Christ sent the seventy disciples, two and two, that they might strengthen and encourage one another, as “lambs in the midst of wolves”. The missionaries were dependent on God for their protection, and their livelihood. Their mission was urgent and could not be delayed. It involved proclamation of the kingdom by deed and word, in a largely hostile and unbelieving world – a world, ironically, not unlike that in which we live today.
The context of the Lucan Gospel is the teaching of the missionary church. The work of the seventy, when Jesus despatched them on their mission, may be seen as an example, both for that time and for today. The disciples were warned to take nothing which might impede their physical progress, or detract from their spiritual purpose; they are, in effect, to “travel light”. They were also cautioned to not expect hospitality along the road, nor to beg, but rather to accept the shelter of one house in each town (almost in the manner of the members of the mendicant religious orders in the later Church). They were to be as soldiers on a campaign.
Because Christian discipleship essentially involves sacrifice, as is reiterated later in Luke’s Gospel, this should not be entered into lightly. Although Luke appears to be making a general statement (“Whosoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”), this should be read in context. It appears to have two related aspects, at two different levels. The first (narrower) is the warning against riches and reliance upon riches – the need to place reliance on heaven not on earth – the second is a caution to not hastily follow Jesus, but to take due care that one is aware of the ultimate cost.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ and God the Father must be above even the highest loyalties of earthly love, that is, all our love of self must be subordinate to our love for God, who must be first in our life.
Clearly some renunciation is needed. But is it spiritual or physical renunciation which is required? Which has a hold of the heart, possessions or Jesus? We may interpret the more general warnings as being against riches, and trusting in them. The renunciation of possessions is no more literal – for most of us – than is the call to “take up the cross”.
The rich members of the early church faced a particular difficulty, for they could not serve both God and mammon. Did their possessions prevent them from being Christians? Luke offers two examples. We have the example of Peter and the apostles, who gave up everything to follow Jesus. Levi the tax collector surrenders his lucrative occupation. Zacchaeus is not required to sell all – half is sufficient – so there would appear to be no simple (or single) answer. However the rich young ruler could not bring himself to renounce his wealth, and went away sorrowing. The command to forsake riches and to follow Jesus appears to have been very specific to this man. We are not told that Jesus said this sort of thing regularly, or even often. The actual giving up of property may not have been a reality for all. For some the material cost of following Jesus was greater, perhaps because their attachment to material things was greater – they could not give their lives to Jesus. This was not a case of giving to others, but of giving up dependence on earthly ties.
Salvation has been bought for us by Jesus, and all we need do is admit that we need this, and humbly receive it – so how could the renunciation of property be required? Priests (in some traditions) and religious may take a vow of poverty, but for the vast majority of Christians personal poverty has rarely, if ever, been a condition which they have sought. It is not possessions per se which are to be rejected, but the notion of absolute ownership. We owe all to God, so we are stewards for our possessions. It would be easy to interpret Luke strictly, so that only those who renounce personal property can become Christians. But it is the disciples’ attitude to their property which is important. Do they trust in Jesus, or in their riches? Someone who does the latter cannot be His disciple. Surrender to God is key to our personal salvation. Trusting in Jesus means that we become the disciples of Christ, and may be called to be “as lambs in the midst of wolves”. As today’s reading tells us, this is both urgent and important.
Few of us are called literally to be missionaries in a foreign field – those who, like Thomas Owen, become missionaries to unconverted pagan populations are rare indeed with the spread of Christianity across the globe. But in today’s troubled world perhaps it is in our own communities that we should be missionaries, as disciples of Christ. Today is Refugee Sunday, and Citrus Sunday. We can welcome and aid the refugee and the needy in our midst, not by trying to recruit them to our own religion – if they are non-Christian – but by showing through word and deed the message of the risen Lord, and what it means to be Christian. Shake the dust from our feet at the unwelcoming door, and go on our way, but always leave a memory of someone following in the Way, in loving service to humanity.
Almighty and everlasting God, who has made us for yourself so that we can only find our full contentment in you grant that no weakness of heart or mind may hinder us from knowing your will and having the strength to obey it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.