Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church,
Whiteparish – Sunday 2 October 2016
Habakkuk 1:1-4/2:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
One of my greatest
heroes of all time is the Antarctic Explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton – the man
whom, before the expeditions of Scott and Amundsen in 1911/1912, had gone
further south than any person before.
The pole having been
conquered in 1911 by Amundsen, there only remained one thing left to do to
better that – and that was to cross the whole of the Antarctic Continent from
one side to the other – from sea to sea - from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean
in the Weddell Sea south of the Falklands across the icy wastes to emerge at
the Ross Sea at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean beneath New Zealand. Shackleton set out to do this in 1914 just
before the beginning of the First World War.
To this end he made preparations for what
became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17.
Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly
crushed and sank before the shore parties could be landed. The crew escaped by
camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats
to reach Elephant Island and ultimately
the inhabited island of South
Georgia, a stormy ocean voyage of 720 nautical
miles and Shackleton's most famous exploit. Shackleton later died on a further
expedition and at his widow’s request was buried on South Georgia. It remains my ambition to one day visit his
grave there and pay my respects to “the Boss” as he was affectionately called.
The
one thing which impresses me above everything else is that although Shackleton
was largely responsible for the loss of Endurance,
because he insisted that the ship be sailed much further south than
recommended by the skipper, and the subsequent hardship which his whole team
had to endure (the ship was appropriately named) his crew never lost faith in
him. He promised the crew that not one
single one of them would be lost and he succeeded in bringing every last member
of his team safely home to England in 1917.
The saddest thing of all is that having done so, many were to later lose
their lives on the killing fields of Flanders in that senseless war.
Have you ever lost
faith in anything? A person, a project,
a promise? When I think of the hardship
suffered by Shackleton’s men I can imagine that there must have been times, on
the ice floes, in the little lifeboats and finally waiting for the Boss’s
return, to resign themselves to the thought of dying in that cold wasteland.
Shackleton was a great
Christian and he believed fully that God would see him through. One of the
things which he saved from the Endurance
were important passages of scripture which he tore out of a bible given to him
by the then Queen Dowager, Queen Alexandra before he left England. He needed to carry as little weight as
possible so had to tear out passages and abandon the bible on the ice (where it
was later picked up by another expedition). Amongst them were Luke’s Gospel and
Psalm 107. Later, when he wrote his
account of the ill-fated expedition in his book “South” he penned these
words:
“When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided
us, not only across those snowfields, but across the storm-white sea that
separated Elephant Island from our landing-place on South Georgia. I know that
during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed
mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were
four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards
Worsley said to me, “Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was
another person with us.” Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels “the
dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech” in trying to describe
things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a
reference to a subject very near to our hearts.’
Shackleton, in particular,
reflected on Luke 24 and the road to Emmaus.
Each of today’s readings
emphasises these thoughts though and got me to thinking about how we can
develop our own faith. The prophet
Habakkuk in the first section of this morning’s reading cries out in despair –
asking how long does he have to wait for help?
Echoes of those same thoughts of the men left on Elephant Island. To the
prophet, it seems that only the wicked prevail and justice does not seem to
come forward; but in the second part he answers his own questions of despair
following a vision he has of God. The
answer being that in due time, in God’s time, it will all come right – just as
it did for the men on Elephant Island. They had to wait over a year for the
Boss’s return but God will answer their prayers just as he will answer ours.
Paul reminds his young protégé,
in our second reading, not to shy away from God’s call to ministry – that in
evangelising the gospel suffering may very well be a part of the whole
thing. Paul is writing this in prison
imploring the young Timothy to place all his trust in Jesus Christ as
Saviour. The young protégé must have
seen how his mentor, Paul, had been persecuted and imprisoned for his strong
Christian beliefs and at times wondered whether it was all worth it. Paul says – “Do not be ashamed, God did not
give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of
self-discipline.” I cannot but think that these would all be incredibly
wonderful gifts for the men of Elephant Island to have had. They had to survive in a small community, in
adverse weather conditions – but a belief that God was with them, that they
could help and protect each other with the power of love and self-discipline
just as Paul had told Timothy. Above all, Paul reminds Timothy, in the very
last sentence that he must “guard the
good treasure entrusted [to him], with the help of the Holy Spirit living in
us.”
These are both good readings and
reasons for having faith but there will always be times when our faith gets
tested to such a limit, hopefully not having to live on an island for a year
with only seals and penguins to eat, when we really do struggle. These are often things which each and every
one of us has to deal with at some time in our lives – illness, bereavement,
redundancy, finances, joblessness. There
are often natural disasters and wars creating death and poverty which will make
us ask “Where is God in all this?” Why is there so much suffering?
There are no easy answers. Being a Christian won’t supply them easily
either. The apostles in our gospel
reading themselves needed to know how they could increase their faith. Obviously they struggled with this question
too. But Jesus answered that even the
smallest amount of faith will result in great things. Having faith (however
small) is what is needed because it grows itself within us if we allow it.
Jesus’s further explanation
might at first appear strange and difficult.
Here he is saying is that it must be taken as read that if we have faith
and believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour then we have done what is expected
of us. There is no magical formula in
which we are any better than the next Christian. We are equal in the sight of God as members
of his wider church – and here I mean the worldwide community of Christian
believers of whatever nationality and denomination.
In other words, as Jesus’s
disciples in this modern world, we should do only what is expected of us – to
keep faith and love our fellow humans.
Then our own spirituality will grow within us with which we can continue
to proclaim the gospel and bring others to faith. That is the duty of all Christians and
something which Jesus himself is telling us should not surprise us.
Shackleton, with the guidance of
“Providence”, as he puts it in his book “South”,
had a job to do. He was “the Boss”, he
was responsible for the lives of his team. He messed up and lost his ship but
for him it was his duty to see them through safely. He believed that Jesus was with them across
the icy wastes and that kept him and his companions going. That was all the
faith he needed – to know the love and care of Jesus Christ. To put everything in his care.
The message is clear. Have faith, keep your faith and it will grow
itself within you as you continue to live out your life in accordance with
God’s own plans for you. To surrender to
his will, read his word and let the Holy Spirit do his work.
Amen
85/29.09.2016
