Sermon for Trinity 11.
Matthew 16:21-end, Romans 12: 9-end
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Sunday 31st August has been designated a global day of prayer for Iraq. With the fact of persecution staring us in the face, and sickening images across our TV screens,
How are we to respond to evil?
I hesitate to say I have ‘4 answers’ but here
are 4 things to perhaps consider…
1. It is a reality in our world.
Recently the Church had an attempt at producing
a revised baptism liturgy, an updating of the present form of words, which
contains these questions, posed to the parents and godparents: ‘Do you reject
the devil and all rebellion against God?
Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of
evil?’
These were replaced with: ‘Do you reject evil,
and all its many forms and all its empty promises?’
Well, you can imagine the furore this caused in
a Church that isn’t exactly known for embracing change!
I wonder whether you would be a keep-the-devil-in
sort of person, or a reformer?!
The writer and Christian Francis Spufford
reported on a baptism he attended where the new words were used to great effect(he
thought) and he wrote about it in the Telegraph; but others were not so sure.
Personally I don’t find it easy explaining the
devil-and-all-his-works part of the liturgy to baptism families; but recently I
did just such a thing where the dad had been a soldier in Bosnia in the 90s.
He didn’t need convincing of the reality of the
presence of evil in
the world. It was only too clearly etched in his
memory.
In fact it isn’t the first time I’ve talked to a
member of the armed forces where the concept of PTSD has come up. There is only
so much horror we can cope with as human beings.
And we have been seeing a great deal of horror
in Iraq recently.
It is our honour as Christians to display the Arabic
letter ‘n’ on our order of service today and to put up posters of the same in
our area.
The reason for this is helpfully explained by
Russell Moore on the Patheos Blog, from which I quote:
Christians around
the world are changing their social media avatars to the arabic letter “n.” In
so doing, these Christians are reminding others around them to pray, and to
stand in solidarity with believers in Iraq who are being driven from their
homes, and from their country, by Islamic militants. The Arabic letter comes
from the mark the ISIS militants are placing on the homes of known Christians.
“N” is for “Nazarene,” those who follow Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps it’s a good
time to reflect on why Nazareth matters, to all of us. The truth that our Lord
is a Nazarene is a sign to us of both the rooted locality and the global
solidarity of the church.
How do we respond to evil and persecution; to
the scenes we have witnessed on the news recently, scenes of such evil that we
shudder to even concentrate on what is before our eyes...?
- 2. Persecution has been with us from the beginning.
We said Morning Prayer on Friday, during which we
remembered the beheading of John the Baptist, and I must admit that the story
took on a fresh and deadly perspective as I thought about the beaheadings which have been reported recently. his is not simply an outmoded, historic mode of execution; it would appear it is happening in the 21st Century.
How should we respond?
As ever, the Word of God speaks into this
situation.
The Christians at Rome knew a thing or two about
persecution.
The 1st state organized persecutions
of Christians took place under Nero in AD64 but the first Jewish Christians had
been persecuted before that, and scattered to the four winds, after the death of
Stephen, the first martyr.
Someone has said that the blood of the martyrs
is the seed of the church.
I found an interesting essay, which questioned
this assertion.
The author was Canadian and he had carried out
research on the Russian persecuted Church; concluding that sometimes
persecution actually wipes out a Church, so it is not as easy to say that
persecution leads to church growth.
But he concluded that Church growth nearly
always led to persecution of some sort.
His comment to his fellow Christians in Canada
was this:
So when people ask me, “Do you think we will
ever have persecution here in Canada?” recently I’ve
been inclined to answer, “Why should we be
persecuted? In what way is the average Canadian Christian
making such a difference for the kingdom of God
that he/she warrants being persecuted? In what way
does the average Canadian Christian stand out
from his/her society in such a way that the offense of the
cross that Paul speaks of in Galatians is
exhibited?”
We might take his words to heart in this
country…
So how are we to respond to evil?
3. We weep with those who weep.
If we are to weep with those who weep, it means
being informed.
That’s where we will probably need to supplement
our newspaper reading something from a believing perspective.
Canon Andrew White is the only Anglican Priest
still ministering in Baghdad and has frequently been called upon in the past by
Islamic and Christian leaders to act as go between.
His church has a rich ministry of worship ad
humanitarian aid, is constantly under threat, many of his staff members have
been murdered; yet still the ministry of gospel continues there. I will read a
latest extract form his blog:
Update from
Iraq – Canon Andrew White
My Dear Friends,
How I long to be able to tell you
positive things here. So for a moment I will not tell you the negatives.
This is the week of our children’s first communion, it is one of the
biggest events in the churches year. Each day the children come for
several hours of intense study. There is such excitement. Yesterday as I
sat down with the children I asked them why they were so excited.
They basically said that when they were baptised their parents had
promised that they would follow Yesua but now they have decided
themselves. I was able to give each of the children a mega-voice solar
powered bible, we have had many donated to us from “Leading the Way” in
Australia and Northern Ireland. These bibles have been such a cause for
joy amongst us, some are also going to be given to the people in the North
who have had to flee leaving everything including their Bibles. So amongst
the devastation there has indeed been the joy of our Lord.
Meanwhile we always think that
things cannot get worse but they continue to. Dr Sarah is in the north
with a good team of people we have got there doing so much of the relief
work with the huge numbers of displaced people – Christians, Yazidees and
others. I think that it is wonderful that the person heading up our work
amongst those fleeing the Islamic State is in fact a Muslim helping the
Christians.
One thing that has caused us great
distress in our work is that there are all sorts of Christian groups
turning up here going to the camps, taking pictures, asking the camp
managers what is needed but delivering nothing. All the authorities are
saying to Dr Sarah that she is the only one that helps them. This is the
sad reality we have not seen other on the ground bring real help. UNHCR is
now on the ground providing basic tents and food but there is so much more
we have had to do. Provision of wheel chairs, babies cots, nappies
and medicines to name but a few of the many things we are providing.
Yesterday I heard an account from one of our people who used to be here
with us. He is disabled and was not able to flee with everybody else so he
hid with his children. Eventually the Islamic State broke into the house
they lined up the children and said that unless he converted to Islam they
would all have their heads chopped off. He said the words of conversion
and they allowed him and his children to live but made them stay. He cried
on the phone to me “Abouna Abouna I still love YESUA, will he still love
me and my children?” I assured him that He did and that he still was a
Christian and belonged to Yesua. I thought what would I have done if my
boys were going to be killed in front of me?’ (http://frrme.org/canon-andrews-blog/)
So finally, how do we respond?
4.
Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Romans
12:21).
We
know that evil will be overcome with good because of the Cross.
In
our gospel Jesus has the painful experience of rebuking Peter (it must have
been pretty painful for Peter too).
The suffering comes before the glory.
Jesus will not be deterred from the Cross,
because only the final facing down of evil with his body and blood, will open
the way to victory.
Whatever theory of the cross you like to hold
to, I’m fond of the one the Church Fathers gave us, which they called ‘Christus
Victor’: that through his death, Christ triumphed over evil and defeated it
completely.
Let us hold onto this fact as we consider our
brothers and sisters in Iraq, and Canon Andrew White and the work of St George’s
Baghdad.
How are we to respond to evil?
By remembering it is a reality in the
world.
By remembering that persecution has been
with us from the beginning and indeed may always be the result of a spiritually
healthy church.
By weeping with those who weep.
By holding onto the Cross, where evil is
overcome by good.
In the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
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