Homilies
To be great, we must become least.
Holy Spirit, take my words and speak to each of us according to our need.
When I was ordained in June this year, one of the hymns we had during the service was ‘Here am I, Lord.’ Personally, I really like the hymn. It speaks to me of God’s provision and being led by God in service to others as thankfulness. However, I know many people who really don’t like it at all. All they hear when they listen to it is ‘Look at me God. It’s all about me God. I can do it God, pick me!’ Funny isn’t it, how perspective can change something.
Today’s Gospel reading, isn’t so much different. Jesus says to James and John, along with the rest of the disciples that He, the Son of Man, came to serve; not to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many. You see James and John had been wanting to get themselves noticed. They wanted Jesus to agree to give them a position next to him on his throne in heaven. Not surprisingly, Jesus doesn’t grant this request but he does explain to them that those positions are not just given, they are already assigned to those for whom it has been prepared. (Now that statement could be a whole sermon in itself – but not for today)
Jesus then introduces them to a new way of being, different from the usual regime of hierarchy with power. He tells them that if they wish to become great, then they must become a servant to others. I imagine, that this wasn’t quite what they were expecting at all. By today’s standards it still seems quite a radical message.
Many people still want positions of authority because it gives them some power, usually over other people. Conversely it seems to be that in putting others first, people assume that they will be denying or neglecting themselves….
I wonder if you’ve ever stopped to ponder this predicament? I have, and what I realised was that if we are considering other people’s needs before our own then we also become a person that other people are considering. And so it becomes a mutual cycle of looking after each other, making sure that everyone is able to flourish rather than putting others down to lift ourselves up. (either metaphorically or physically!)
Something else that occurred to me when thinking about this was that, sometimes helping others with their situations, either problems or celebrations, puts our own lives into perspective and things that had seemed so important or overwhelming when alone may not be so major after all. And if they are, then there are others around, with your best interests at heart to share them with.
Sometimes this ‘putting others first’ happens on a big scale and at other times it might such a small act that it doesn’t even really register with us; such as holding a door open for the person behind you who is ladened with shopping bags.
Let me give an example of one of those big times….On July 31st 1941, sirens rang out across Auschwitz. A prisoner had attempted to escape. As a deterrent and warning to others, 10 men were chosen at random to be punished – to be killed by death in a starvation bunker. One of those chosen men was Franciszek Gajowniczek, (Fran-see-chek Gai-oh-nee-chek) a Polish army sergeant. His prison number was 5659 and as his name was called out, he cried out in anguish for his wife and family whom he would never see again. On hearing his dispair, prisoner number 16670, a Roman Catholic priest, with no wife or family, stepped forward and without hesitation, offered to take his place. The request was granted and just two weeks later, when further need for the starvation bunker arose, the prisoners were put to death by a lethal injection of carbolic acid.
Stories have survived which have recounted the efforts of prisoner 16670 in transforming the feel within the bunker to one which mirrored a church; encouragement, fellowship and solidarity. That prisoner was Maximilian Kolbe, who would later be canonised for his sacrifice and martyrdom. After Franciszek was spared he spent a further total of five years, five months and nine days in various concentration camps before he was reunited with his wife. With his life transformed he dedicated his life to traveling around and recounting the act that Maximilian Kolbe had done for him and how he had been saved because of this selfless act. He went on to live until the age of 93 and was present as a special guest of Pope Paul VI when Kolbe was beatified on the 17th October 1971 and was present again with Pope John Paul II when Kolbe was canonised on the 10th October 1982.
Now this is an extreme example, we don’t all get the chance to make such huge decisions and sacrifices as Kolbe did but sometimes small gestures or natural responses to situations can have a huge impact that we could not have foreseen. You may have heard of the butterfly effect or ripple effect. Let me explain… A well-known, yet somewhat now embellished story recounts how a Scottish farm worker was tending his land when he heard shouts for help from a young voice. On searching out the calling, he discovered a young boy trapped up to his armpits in a bog. Naturally, he assisted the boy and managed to rescue him. The next day, the farmer was visited by a local nobleman, whose son it was that the farmer had saved. He wanted to repay the farmer for his action and for saving his son’s life. The farmer declined any reward and insisted that it was a natural reaction to rescue someone in distress. The nobleman would not accept this and insisted that as the farmer also had a son, he be allowed to pay for him to receive a good education.
In time, the farmer’s son benefitted from this arrangement and graduated from medical school, his name was Alexander Fleming, credited with discovering the properties of Penicillin. The story continues that some years later the nobleman’s son was again saved after being struck down with pneumonia. He was saved by the use of penicillin. The questionable part of the story is that the nobleman’s son, now twice saved, was Winston Churchill.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusion about the effects or ripples of one act of kindness and how many other lives were ultimately affected, even if not directly, as a result of it.
So, returning to our Gospel reading for today, making ourselves least or servant to all needn’t require huge sacrificial acts but it does require us to respond humbly and meekly. Kolbe, did not make a big show of exchanging places with Franciszek, but merely inquired of the possibility quietly to a guard. Likewise, the farmer did not brag about his feat in saving the boy. He responded as he would have hoped others would have done towards him if he were in trouble. He could have rebuked the boy for playing in a bog or decided that it was his own fault for being in that predicament and left him to find a solution for himself….but he didn’t, he chose to show grace.
Looking out for others isn’t about making ourselves look good, it is about being human. Responding to someone’s need and a desire to see them flourish and for want of a better phrase, remembering that ‘there but by the grace of God, go I.’ And extending that same grace to those we interact with.
Where would we be if God had turned his back on us and let take the punishment for all the things that we have done that hinder our relationship with God? We may be thinking, ‘but I’ve not done anything that is really that bad. I’ve not killed anyone, I don’t do drugs, I’m not addicted to alcohol or other substances, I live a morally upright life.’ But in the Gospel of John it is written that ‘everyone is a slave to sin’. The word sin has such heavy connotations- can a wrong thought be compared to murder?
Sin, wrong-doing, the propensity to mess up – whatever you prefer to call it, is addictive – and can soon become a pattern of behaviour that is hard to break on your own. It’s sometimes easier to maintain that behaviour than it is to change it, especially if you are surrounded by others who behave likewise.
The fact that we have a criminal justice system, shows that we believe that wrongdoing should have consequences and that we don’t think people should get away with behaving badly – so why should it be any different for us when we face God? Wrongdoing throughout our essentially short lives is often placed within a human-made scale of ‘badness’ but for God who is eternal and changeless, perhaps all wrongdoing is the equal?
So where does this leave us? Are we the ones in the position of James and John, wanting to be noticed and exercise some element of power or even just seeking some recognition and acknowledgment for things we have done? Perhaps we all have those tendencies within us, but equally I, for one am thankful that God loves us unconditionally and that He found worth in each one of us to let Jesus willingly take on our deserved punishment and die in our place, so that we may be made right again in the sight of God.
Caveat! - This doesn’t give us free reign though to act without regard, knowing that we are and will be forgiven every time we make a mistake, rather it should be an incentive to put into place the grace that we have been shown through Jesus’ suffering for our own mistakes, and those towards others and to be Jesus’ body on earth, extending his grace to all of God’s creation.