Sermon: Cathedral Eucharist Lent 2

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 24th February 2013

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Readings:

Philippians 3: 17-4.1

Luke 13: 31-35

SeOne of Roald Dahl’s marginally less dark stories is that of Fantastic Mr Fox. In it Fantastic Mr Fox manages to outwit the repulsive farmers Boggis, Bean and Bunce and raid their hen houses on a regular basis, albeit to the cost of his beautiful bushy tale.

In Dahl’s story the fox has a certain swagger and panache, rather than the cunning often associated with them. And as a keeper of hens myself I have engaged in battles with the Stag Hill fox population, resorting finally to an electric fence to keep the girls safe. The recent dreadful report of an urban fox attacking a young child gives the fox an air of menace, much as wolves in the fairy tales. The rabbis of Jesus’ day are known to have used the phrase ‘fox’ to refer to someone of similar low cunning and habitual deception; and it’s an epithet that fits Herod perfectly.

But on hearing the gospel it is not our task to demonise either foxes or Herod, but to listen attentively ourselves since it has a bearing on our journey through Lent towards Easter.

In St Luke’s gospel Jesus is literally on a journey to Jerusalem, just as figuratively we are too, since Jerusalem is the place where the mystery of our dying and rising with Christ is to be unveiled. Jesus is relentlessly drawn to Jerusalem as the place where he knows he will both meet his end and be raised: the reference to ‘today, tomorrow and the next day’ rings resurrection bells to us, expressed as it is in the Creed ‘and on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures’.

Why go to Jerusalem? Well, if Jesus is to face down the cosmic powers of darkness he must first face down the powers of this world. That unavoidably means first Pontius Pilate embodiment of Rome, the dominant power, second, it means Herod, held in thrall colluding with Rome, and third, it means the religious powers. All three are they who Paul alludes to in our epistle, ‘whose end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things’ (Philippians 3.19)

The powers have panache and swagger like Fantastic Mr Fox but that is a mask; but their cunning is not to be confused with wisdom, it is to do with cruelty.

Our journey to Jerusalem in Lent is to walk with Jesus on a journey of transformation where all is brought to completion and from which our dying and rising with Christ can be effected. Just prior to the passage of Philippians that was read today Paul describes his eager and relentless pursuit of being Christlike, and in what was read today we hear of the dramatic conclusion of that pursuit. For Paul and us, the imitation of Christ will call us to face down the powers and paradoxes of our day. Those powers today come in beautifully attractive packaging; but as we know from the horse meat scandal, not everything does what it says on the tin or the packet. So, what is packaged as security is revealed to be about control; what is packaged as freedom to do with your body what you like, with whom you like, shows love as a transaction not person to person intimacy; what is packaged as our food security masks a world of wastage and hunger; what is packaged as the reasonable expectations of a developed society masks complacency and arrogance and breeds dissatisfaction.

All this could sound like a counsel of suspicion and mistrust. Quite the contrary! It is joy-filled call to put our trust in Him who is worthy of trust. This is the blessed way of ‘the one who comes in the name of the Lord’ (Luke 13.35). It is when we walk in the way of the Lord, and not Herod, that we will see the Father, in imitation of Christ, in the power of the Spirit. This is the way of God’s wisdom, a wisdom revealed by Jesus that sees that powers and dominions of the world unmasked; just as the wonderful Wizard of Oz had the curtain pulled away and was revealed as a hapless control freak. And this way of wisdom is a way of transformation, as Paul puts it, ‘[Our Lord Jesus Christ] will transform the body of our humiliation that it may conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself’ (Philippians 3.21)

The language of subjection and imitation is neither a supine response to tyranny nor a humiliated and pathetic piety: it is the boldness to claim, as we do in baptism, that the object of our worship and praise is not the powers of this world, is not our own vanity and fantasies, is not the low cunning of manipulation but is the transforming love of Christ that brings us to our full human dignity, body, mind and spirit.

We come here gathered into that love, under the wings of Christ, expectant that we will be transformed; to be renewed and refreshed, bringing joyful, life filled and life giving lives to the world in which we are set, making choices that break free from the oppressive orthodoxies of human society. What better thing could be said of you and me in this week at work, at home, at university, amongst those with whom we share our lives, than ‘thank God for those who come in the name of the Lord’.