July 25, 2010

Wilf Holt

Pentecost 8     Social Services Sunday     Luke 11:1-13


Today we celebrate Social Services Sunday and I guess for me at least it represents a heaven sent opportunity. An opportunity to poignantly raise the issues of our homeless, our marginalised and our local social services. Talk off issues of justice and justice denied.

An opportunity as an ordained social service practitioner to forcefully and even righteously champion the needs of social service agencies and their clients to the congregation of St Matthews in particular and to the wider church in general.

I could in that context become a lion in a den of lambs.

On the other hand – you the “sermonee” may well think – here we go again – stories of deprivation bordering on the uncomfortable, exhortations, incisive deconstruction of postmodern society and of course reference to familiar pieces of scripture and at the very least one mention of "faith without works,” etc. I know you've heard some of those quotes because I have taken us down that path in previous years.

Not today however – I just want to do three simple things:

The first is to recapitulate the nature of diaconal ministry. The second is to examine the nature of prayer, including the various ways of doing it. And finally what is the meaning of faith and its relationship to prayer.

Shouldn't take too long.

Stephen the Deacon

Scripture tells us that Stephen was a deacon. Apparently, as soon as the Apostles had received that fantastic surge of confidence which was Pentecost, they saw that the church would need some organization, and that this would involve separating the people who could do what only the Apostles could do from those who could do what anybody of goodwill could do.

Speaking as befitted the conveners of the second church committee on record, the Twelve issued a statement saying, “It would be a grave mistake for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait at table.”

Whatever they meant by this (and it sounds like a good foundation for committee language) they caused seven to be appointed to do the chores, and of these the only one anybody has heard of since was – Stephen.

I suspect Stephen did a bit more than wait at table – a bit more than handing round the salad and serving the wine. He did however make a great impression as a heater and a preacher, and as befitted a young man he did not mince his words.

Something he said gave great offense to the "Synagogue of the Freedmen" – apparently a league or fraternity of Jews who had formerly been slaves. Why the fraternity should have taken special offense at the preaching of the gospel of liberation heaven only knows. But offended they were so they had Stephen arrested on certain technical evidence which in those days was easy to obtain if you were prepared to pay for it.

He was taken to court, charged with blasphemy and invited to say whether he wished to say anything before sentence was passed. He did, and what he said is summarized in fifty-three verses of the longest chapter in Acts and in the process delivered the first Christian apologetic sermon on record.

But it was not, we gather, the length of his exposition that troubled the court. He started with Abraham, worked through Moses, glanced at the Psalms, and no doubt was all set to embark on the prophets, but at this point he was incautious enough to describe the court as "stubborn, heathen at heart, deaf to the truth." He was interrupted by the judge, sentenced, and then stoned to death.

In his passing he became a hero, a martyr, the first non-apostolic Christian saint and the first male Deacon. I believe he was piped at the post by Phoebe who scripture records as the first Deaconess. [i]

Now it so happened that a young lawyer from Tarsus, who was particularly violent in his views against Christians, watched all of these goings on – and since the next thing we hear about that young lawyer is that he was confronted by Christ on the road to Damascus, we may take it that all this is straight history and poignant history at that.

The Incarnation, says the drama of the church's year, does that to people. It makes heroes of people whose duty is washing dishes and setting tables, and through such it reaches people like Paul. A sort of theological law of unintended consequences!

I raise this story again in the way of a warning. A warning – diaconal service – that servant function – that diakonia of all believers we are all enjoined to undertake can be dangerous and at various levels is. Opportunities of martyrdom, of ridicule, of pain discomfort and disruption in our everyday lives are real.

Perhaps martyrdom is now extremely rare – although I would like to think the murdered priests in the Solomon's in the recent past may give us pause to think.

That unintended consequence of doing good of course is not restricted to those attempting it. Those receiving that diakonia are also at risk for often social service changes people – and change can be uncomfortable and even dangerous.

When we are involved in service so many opportunities arise for both parties.

Now I'd like to explore the little parable found in the middle third of our gospel reading. As a social worker I was immediately intrigued by the first visitor – the friend of the fiend who woke up his friend. What was he doing turning up at midnight? Picture it. The visitor must have come from another village, he wasn't by himself or why the need for three loaves. Why was he arriving at midnight – travel in those days was risky – the roads were poor, people needed good reason to travel and we can imagine that traveling on foot made for accurate calculations on distance and time. Had he got lost, was a member of the party injured – were they fearful of interception by some one or some agency thereby electing to travel at night. The text was no help so I left it.

I then focused on the other friend of the bread-seeking friend – the second friend to be woken. The commentaries were most helpful.

The man is woken, initially resists the request of his friend but eventually relents and gives him the bread – it seems that he only accedes to the request because his friend was persistent – either in his knocking or in his requests.

The man acts – not out of honor (friendship, mutual obligation neighborliness) he acts out of shamelessness because he will be dishonored if the village discovers his friend standing outside begging for what ought to be freely given. He is afraid he will be disgraced in the village. He has done out of shamelessness what he ought to have done out of honor.

But that's not what I want to talk about. What really intrigued me about today's reading was the bread seeking friend. Incidentally he by now may well have woken up a number of fellow villagers seeking other ingredients for the meal such as olives and wine – for as scripture tells us 'man can not live by bread alone'.

This friend has already opened his house to the first midnight friend and welcomed his party in. I'm still assuming it was a party which means that his house was now very crowded – for I again assume that he had a family for in those times it would have been very strange for him to have lived alone – as a peasant he would surely still been living under the roof of his father if he were unmarried. The House most probably had only one room and everyone slept in it – the best posies of course would have gone to the visitors.

So crowded house or not he sets off around the village to gather the necessary food that hospitality demand he serves to the visitor. At this point he could become plagued by doubts. Life was hard for peasant communities – sleep would have been precious – and he has to wake people – dogs will probably start barking, who has spare food, are they going to answer my knock, what will people say when they know I have no food – even for my own family.

Could he even have become angry at his visiting friend for putting him in this situation? Was this visitor bringing trouble with him – why me and why now?

Whether he had any of those thoughts or not – he knocked on doors, gathered food returned home and had his wife prepare a meal.

So why did he do it – what compelled him? What was the secret of his success – for he was successful in ensuring his obligation of hospitality was fulfilled? The text tells us it was his persistence. But is that enough – no not quite – for he acted out of honor, out of friendship, mutual obligation and neighborliness – not I suspect out of shamelessness. In other words he acted the way he did because of the relationship he had with his friends. On the one hand he had a friend in need which he unquestioningly responded to. On the other hand he sought assistance from a friend whom he new would also respond unquestioningly – a simple triad of mutual response to mutual need. Even the bread-owing friend had a need – to avoid being shamed.

This then begs the questions – why then do any of us do the good that we do – does it in fact matter what the explanation is or what fires our motivation – does it matter whether we act out of honor or out of shamelessness – as long as good things get done. That those in need receive what they need. If so then all is good.

Well initially perhaps all is good. At the heart of this parable is the notion of persistence. If I initially act only through shamelessness but that action becomes a habit then the chances are that I will eventually act out of honor. A self sustaining and reinforcing cycle of action that not only changes things for those in need but begins to change those who attempt to meet that need.

In the same way Jesus taught the Lucian disciples to pray and then followed the instruction up very quickly with the exhortation to pray persistently. Develop the habit as it were and that cycle speeds up and change begins to happen. Eventually the knocked on door is opened – perhaps not as quickly as we would like and not necessarily to reveal the visitor we would like but it is opened. Our parable then suggests that prayer is a leaned experience – not simply a release of feeling and that we need to keep at it even if we initially only attempt it out of shamelessness.

These few verses highlight the central message about prayer, and at the same time point out that we should not compare God to a friend who responds only under pressure to an untimely appeal – rather how much more God will answer when we pray – what ever the time. .

These few verses serve to highlight nature of the relationship that can exist between God and us his people. That relationship is the foundation and sustainer of faith.

So when tired, when busy, when just wanting to get through the day – when I would really prefer to look the other way, cross the road, when feeling hopeless or resentful or fearful of what others might think – then perhaps that's the time when I can reach down and draw upon the faith of our midnight friend.

Amen.

[i] Portrayal of Stephen drawn from a sermon preached by Erik Routley. At Princeton University Chapel on the Feast of St. Stephen, December 26, 1976.