SERMON BY THE VICAR: 2 BEFORE LENT

Readings: Genesis 2:4-9, 15-end; Revelation 4; Luke 8:22-25

Which image of Jesus in the Gospels do you identify with?  For me, I strongly identify with today’s image as a person who can fall asleep at any time and in any place, sometimes embarrassingly – so much so that when I go to the theatre or cinema with my family they say “We will wake you up at the end”. In 1988, before most people here were born, I slept through the great storm when part of a tree came through my roof. So I identify with Jesus asleep in the boat in the stormy chaos. In all the readings today, we see the role of chaos, as symbolised by water, and bring order out of chaos through faith and worship.  

It is only to state the obvious that we are right now a confused, divided, and directionless society and world – there are of course many and multiple reasons for this. For me, two reasons stand out, both related. The first is lack of vision – “Without vision the people perish” and second is the militantly secular context in which we find ourselves in this country. Secularism maintains that the highest good is the individual and his or her place in the state. There is nothing higher than the state. In the twentieth century, the two catastrophic examples were fascism and communism, both of which systems placed the state at the pinnacle of human achievement. It was a guiding principle of Nazism that the highest good to which an individual could aspire was the State. The principal philosopher on whom Nazism relied, of course, was Friedrich Nietzsche of Mensch und Ubermensch fame. Nietzsche shared much with contemporary political correctness of European secular fundamentalism in his belief, that, given the right conditions, religious belief would simply fade away. Nietzsche famously described religion as the “idiosyncrasy of the decadent revenging themselves upon life.” We see this globally in the collapse of the rule of international law which has characterised the world order from the Second World War until now. What emerges is a chaotic, dog eat dog nationalism. This is simply a projection of how we live from the micro to the macro. At the micro level, the person on their phone in the street walks into a frail and elderly person without even noticing or apologising. At the macro level, big states can consume small states. And as the same Nietzsche said “If God is dead, everything is permitted.”  

But now, twenty-five years into the third Christian millennium, and having left behind a century of militant and murderous atheism, we see religious belief not only stubbornly refusing to go away, but growing, it seems, ever stronger. This is true globally, where faith is on the rise, and we should not imagine that our own faithless society is a model across the world. It is not. As one small example, last week I attended the consecration of a new cathedral for the Iraqi Church of the East in Ealing. This vibrant Iraqi Christian community has bought a former Anglican Church and filled it. The faithless locals are replaced by the faithful, many of whom have come out of persecution. Or take China - there are many acute observers, not least in the Vatican, who predict that the largest number of Christians in 2050 will be in China. Policy makers, it seems, will have to take this phenomenon seriously. 

Why speak about this today?  For two reasons. Firstly the readings set for today. The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is the second creation narrative from Genesis. This second narrative contradicts the first one, but both share the belief that the formless earth was tohu ve bohu. This is clever rhyming Hebrew which means “total chaos.” And it is God who brings order to the chaos, and this Godly work should be continued by humanity in bringing order to chaos. The chaos lurks symbolically in the water. And secondly, we have our own work to do in bringing order out of chaos. 

It is a central Christian belief proclaimed in the Creeds that in Jesus Christ we see the true and archetypal human and true God, existing from before and after the creation of the world. It also reminds us that, as Jesus Christ is the archetypal human being, so we as human beings share in the work of creation as co-creators with God. We are called to work with creation as part of it, and to care for it. The New Testament reading from the Revelation to John continues this theme as Christ the creator of the world. In Christian art and theology, we call this the Pantocrator. In art, the Pantocrator is pictured seated above the globe as its creator. At the centre of the Gospel proclamation is Jesus Christ, pictured as the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God is surrounded by the four living creatures. This is pictorial language of course for the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and their symbols – the ox, the lion, the bull, and the winged angel. In iconography this is called the zoomorph, and you no doubt know where all the zoomorphs are in this church.  One is behind the head of the preacher. Christ is at the centre of creation as its creator, which brings us to the Gospel set for today. 

This creator brings order to the chaos lurking in the water- this time through the raging of the storm. In theology, we call this parallelism – a theme from the Hebrew Scriptures is picked up and consciously mirrored in the New Testament. Order out of chaos. In other words, the Biblical authors knew the central truth that our human condition is one of radical and total insecurity and that the only anchor and security we have is our faith in God. Our sisters and brothers in Christ who are persecuted for their faith know this well. There is a further symbolic reason. Anyone familiar with the practice of the sacrament of reconciliation – either as a confessor or a person making sacramental confession knows this central truth. That inside every human being lurks a tsunami of destructive chaos, which could overwhelm us at any time. But when we are able to name the tsunami of our demons, we have power over them. We still the raging of the storm. This Lent, do not despise the discipline of sacramental confession. It is liberating. 

For Christians, our faith is anchored in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. This gives a strong and stable base to move outwards and forwards as I hope we are always doing. For this reason, we will be studying the Nicene Creed this Lent as the basic statement of our faith. We will say that creed immediately after this sermon so the faithful can correct the errors of the preacher. And there is also sound sense why the compilers of the lectionary use these readings for today as we approach Lent. These readings bring us back to the core on which we rely. This strong and stable theological base of belief in Jesus Christ gives real power to those who enter this Covenant - to become sons and daughters of God. In other words, to be born again, – not just once, but every single day.  Lent offers a time for personal re-birth as we examine our lives as sons and daughters of God. Faith in Jesus Christ gives everything perspective, even if we are reduced to a troglodyte existence in the hermit Kingdom. Let’s hear from China, where half the planet’s population live. The seventh century Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzhang ended his epic narrative Journey to the West, with these words, “Never give up. Keep the faith.”