lambs amongst wolves

 

SERMON PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, RINGWOOD EAST
FOURTEENTH ORDINARY SUNDAY (July 9^TH) 1989

 

READINGS

2 Kings 5:1-14

Psalm 30
Galatians 6:[1-6] 7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

 

 

If I were to parcel Jesus up and to prepare him for popular market as one parcels up everyday products, seeking to make him palatable, I would have to spend a great deal of time cutting away the bitter pill that surrounds his message to his people. 

One often hears of the impact he had on those who heard him speak, yet it could be considered remarkable that he found twelve disciples at all, let alone the seventy-two that he sent out to proclaim the gospel to the world.

Look, I am sending you like lambs amongst wolves.

It is scarcely a job description that would bring hordes knocking to the door of the Christian enterprise.

Even Paul, who was later to respond to the Christian responsibility of proclaiming Christ to the world, sees little of glamour or self-betterment in the task. Rather he sees his responsibility to be one of emptying himself, of exposing himself to the dangers of the Cross, of risking and eventually paying with his life for the gospel of Christ.

I bear the marks of Jesus branded on my body.

Again and again we are reminded of the risky business of proclaiming Christ to the world. A Muslim convert who converts to Christianity in Islamic Society is likely to be rejected or murdered by his or her family. A Christian who proclaims in South Africa that the implications of the gospel for the world are a call to racial equality, and the dismantling of the evils of apartheid is likely to be murdered, gaoled, or at best beaten for the simplicity of such a message. A Christian in this country who speaks out boldly about the inequalities that produce some who rank amongst the world’s richest people and others who belong to one of the world’s poorest races, or who seeks to alter the structure that perpetuates such an evil, is likely to be alienated and castigated by her – or his – neighbours,

Look, I am sending you like lambs amongst wolves.

There is little in such a command that brings a sense of security.

Those of you who read the magazine Good Weekend will be able to tell me what is the world’s fastest growing (para)church. I have to describe the Mormons as a parachurch: theirs is not the gospel of orthodox Christianity. Nevertheless, their growth throughout the world is phenomenal, and it leaves those of us who adhere to orthodox Christianity, and especially in its Anglican form, cringing with deserved shame.

Yet for all their theological absurdities, it has to be said that the Mormons are the fastest growing “church” in the world precisely because they have captured one aspect that dwells close to the core of our gospel passage today. They have caught the command of Jesus to go out into the community to proclaim that which they hold dear.

The question is: what do we hold dear? I would have to suggest that our Mormon friends are not only proclaiming a highly corrupt form of the gospel, but also they are offering little that presents hope to, for example, the people of the black townships of South Africa, or the homeless youth of our own community.

I believe deeply that we as Anglican Christians have far more to proclaim. We have a gospel to proclaim that not only offers hope to “hung up Mr or Ms Normal” but also, if we put our lives where our mouths are, to the children of Ethiopia and Somalia, to our own children, and to the children of the streets.

Look, I am sending you like lambs amongst wolves.

But it is not a gospel that we can proclaim from our lounge rooms. It is not a gospel that we can proclaim merely through the mouths of our clergy or our professional evangelists. It is not a gospel we can proclaim merely by attending church – though we must do that – or merely belonging to clubs and lodges and teams. It is a gospel we must proclaim by going out into our community, if necessary by knocking on doors, by touching the lives of the unpleasant and unwashed, and by making ourselves vulnerable in the cause of the Cross.

The Mormons, by encouraging 50% of their males to commit two years of their lives to proclaiming their quite illogical and contorted version of good news, have grown 650% in the 45 years since World War 2. In the same time Anglican Christianity in the western world has reduced by between 10% and 15%.

In the end, although the message we as Anglican Christians have may not be palatable, may not be one of unconditional comfort, it will be one that has more to say to the victims of injustice, of loneliness, of “industrial disease,” than that offered by the Mormons. But we have only two choices. To commit ourselves to the radical task of visibly proclaiming the gospel or to see our churches closes down within our lifetime.

The choice is ours.

Look, I am sending you like lambs amongst wolves.

And the word we are sent out to proclaim is the word of peace. It is a radical word, the setting right of the hearer’s relationship with God, with self, with neighbour. It is a word that seeks to reorient the injustices of society. It is a word that demands a costly response on the part of the hearer.

The peace of God which passes all understanding.

It is not always a popular word, for it demands setting aside human power games. But it is a word we are called to pronounce. Shalom. To that end we must reach out into the community.

Look, I am sending you like lambs amongst wolves.

The Lord be with you.