November 15, 2015

Susan Adams

Ordinary Sunday 33     1 Sam 2:1-9     Mark 13:1-8

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

I want to read you a letter that I received by email this past week.

       Dear Susan,

       how sad that a Christian church will seek to honour the memory of a man who espoused Communism with violence, and, when he obtained power, treated in utero children as Hitler treated Jews. I guess that it’s just another demonstration of the descent of Anglicanism into a tool of rabid left-wing political and social activists.

       Yours,

Leo

I am feeling the weight of responsibility as I stand here this morning after what we have been considering for the past two days and the news yesterday of the attacks in Paris!..

The writer of Mark’s Gospel tells us Jesus said to his disciples “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.

It behoves us to take stock from time to time and to ask ourselves “Are we being led astray?” and to wonder how we would know if we were! Can we tell national fanaticism from appropriate national and cultural pride? Can we find values in people different from us that enable us to celebrate our common humanity? Can we respect communities different from our own while condemning the actions of individuals?

This weekend we have been exploring the legacy of a world leader of our time, Nelson Mandela. He was here at St Matthews 20 years ago. We have been considering his challenge: to defeat the powers of racism, to overcome prejudice and social segregation, to build diverse and respectful nations. We have been led in our work this weekend by two Anglican Clergy: Bob Scott who worked for many years in anti-racism both here in Aotearoa-New Zealand and in Geneva, in the WWC Programme to Overcome Racism. The other person was Andrew Beyer, a priest of this parish who on behalf of St Matthew’s, along with other groups active in what became known as 'MOST' (Mobilisation to Stop the Tour) led of many hundreds of people week after week in 1981, in protest marches against the South African Apartheid regime, represented in what we called the ‘racist tour’ of the Springbok rugby team to NZ. The mobilisation of people power was successful from the perspective of those of us involved in the movement as the Hamilton game was stopped thereby drawing international attention to the issue of apartheid – that system of government that discriminated, separated and segregated at all levels of and structures of society according to race.. World pressure on the regime increased and shortly after the South African regime of apartheid came to an end.

Through the unrelenting work to keep in focus the issues of racism that Bob and Andrew were engaged in, along with many women and men (including our own George Armstrong) from different churches and community groups, the people of NZ were challenged sharply to face up to expressions of racism and discrimination in our own society.

It was easier back then to look overseas and to make loud tutting noises at what we saw overseas, than it was for us to look into our own communities and families and insist on an acknowledgement of the changes we needed to make in our own nation. But the work of anti-racism, of bicultural development and the urgent need to overcome personal prejudice, had begun and none could escape it. The whole country was engaged in the conversation and held an opinion one way or another: supportive or resistant; many families struggled with intensely held differences.

In 1995, 20 years ago Nelson Mandela came to this church.

He thanked the people here, from church and from the wider community who were also present, for their commitment to the struggle to overcome racism and to the consequences of intolerance.

Today,

• more than 30 years since the ferment following the 1981 tour that focussed urgency for change here in NZ;

• more than 30 years since the cry to honour the Treaty of Waitangi;

• and more than 30 years since the Rev'd John Mullane Vicar of St Matthew’s, urged the Anglican church in its commitment to bicultural development that gathered momentum and led to the revision of our Anglican constitution,

questions of racism, prejudice, social segregation and racial stereotyping are back on the agenda of our ‘super-diverse’ city as they have not been for some time. The language is different, the focus has shifted, our communities are even more diverse but the impact of racism and prejudice are just as pernicious.

Today, once more, there is urgent need to open our hearts and minds and eyes to what is happening to the people of our communities. Once more there is need to look closely and notice the subtle expressions of racial stereotyping reported in our media, and to be aware of the not so subtle racism expressed in the negative statistics in health, education, employment.

Who are the leaders of today who will show us a way to a compassionate expression of our common humanity before we spiral into the ghettos of fear and exclusion that lead to violence?

What we do know about leadership is that anytime it leads us into fear, into isolation, segregation or hate it is bad; it is leading us astray, it has to be challenged. Leadership worthy of our allegiance is leadership that encourages us to overcome our fear of difference, that models and encourages respect, that includes and supports people and groups of people who struggle.

The apocalyptic reading from the Gospel of Mark that we heard this morning, is probably not (according to scholars), part of the collection of authentic Jesus sayings. But that is not to discount it as it certainly points to the overall purpose of Mark's Gospel. This gospel has urgency about it: there is no time to waste in changing hearts and minds, and there is no time to waste in choosing the 'way of Jesus' that leads toward a better, healthier world. The writer was addressing a community that seemed to believe the second coming imminent. This Gospel records persuasively, the ministry activity and teaching of Jesus highlighting how and why we should be following the Way of Jesus, choosing to live differently…

Another wave of persecution had begun for them, and with it violence toward those who did not conform or who dared to speak out against the prevailing norms and oppressive racist powers: 'nation will rise against nation', the writer has Jesus say, death and destruction are at hand. So, the writer urges through his gospel, take up the Jesus Way that leads to a different, better life for all. This Way includes standing against the powers of oppression and death, standing against structural injustice, against discrimination and standing for a kinder, gentler way of respect and inclusion. The 'Jesus Way' requires openness to difference, compassion, love, and justice for those on the margins; it leads to life in harmony with neighbours and the earth; to ways that release the life-giving spirit of God. We seek leaders who will lead us into these ways.

Hannah's prayer, the reading from the First Testament that we heard earlier, paints a word picture of how our world could be if God's vision for creation was realised: the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. but those who were hungry are fat. God will raise up the poor from the dust and lift the needy from the ash heap. And what is more all the components are present amongst us. We hear resonances of Hanna's prayer in Mary's Song when Jesus is conceived, it is the prayers of these two women that seem to lie behind the vision the Jesus Way leads us toward.

• It seems to me, that once more churches like St Matthew-in-the-City need to hold a place for leaders who will encourage us on the way that leads us beyond our fear of change, beyond our limited experience of difference and toward peaceful and just co-existence. We can all be these leaders in our own places of influence – homes, amongst friends, at work...

• It seems to me we have rested long enough on the achievements of the past. That once more it is time to mobilise and move further along the way toward the place where the feeble find strength, the hungry find bread and the needy sit in places of honour.

I can think of nothing better than to give Nelson Mandela the last word on this day. So, as he says in the final paragraph of his book 'Long Walk to Freedom'

"I have walked the long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hiss, one finds there are many more hill to climb. I have take a moment to here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger for my long walk to freedom is not yet ended."