Sermon at All Saints Church,
Whiteparish - Sunday 6 July 2014
Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19; 25-30
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who
hear them. Amen
What a wonderful hymn our last one is – “Amazing Grace” – so well known and loved by so many – both in
church and outside. But of course, it
has a darker origin and reminds us that we still live in a dark world where
Satan’s influence can be so strong – and this is the message which comes across
loud and clear to us in our two New Testament readings this morning.
I am a frequent visitor to the city of Liverpool, where I
once lived and studied law, and I am always amazed at the immense number of
churches (it has two cathedrals for a start) and other places of worship in the
city, which has unfortunately, been stereotyped as a rather lawless place. Many of these churches were built by rich
merchants and ship-owners seeking salvation for their souls by providing places
of worship for the ordinary folk of the city; but historical research often
reveals a much darker side to their characters.
I frequently still worship in one of these churches myself – a cavernous
church called Christ Church in Toxteth Park which could easily seat 600 or more
parishioners in its heyday. Today, its
congregation averages about 40 – 50. Its tall slender spire soars over what, at
one time, was one of the wealthier areas of the city – inhabited by merchants
and shipowners, shipwrights and chandlers.
Of its 600 seats though, only about 24 were reserved as “free” – for the
poor of the parish. The benefactor was a
shipping tycoon himself who exploited the world’s resources and his crews to
make a “fast guinea”.
John Newton, who wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace, was himself a native of Liverpool – also a very successful seafaring trader - sailing frequently from Liverpool Docks to the west coast of Africa then across the Atlantic to Antigua where he would unload his human cargo and take on board raw sugar to be refined by Tate & Lyle in their factory back on the banks of the Mersey.
This regular trip was known as the Triangular Trade – the
ship sailed empty to the Ivory Coast (or with cheap trinket bribes for those in
Africa), took on board its human cargo of slaves, from there to be transported
to the sugar cane plantations of the West Indies – to produce the sugar to be
refined for the British tea table in Liverpool. Newton made this terrible journey many times
because it was so lucrative and it became the financial foundation upon which
Liverpool grew to become, for a time, the second largest city in Great
Britain. But it was on one of these
triangular trips that his ship was caught up in a terrible storm. It was not unknown, then, for a captain to
lighten the load of his ship in a storm by jettisoning his human cargo over the
side. However, on this occasion, he prayed
fervently to God that if his ship, cargo and crew would be saved he would leave
the slave trade and work towards its abolition.
That dark night was a turning point in Newton’s life. He became an ardent abolitionist and a
Methodist minister – and the hymn is a reflection upon his conversion -
“salvation” coming to “a wretch like me”. The hymn is by far his greatest
legacy but it is quite extraordinary how many people who sing it don’t realise
its origin. Salvation came to Newton,
not by building big churches or preaching the gospel from the pulpit, but by
the simple act of genuine repentance for the wrong he knew he was doing by
selling people into a lifetime of slavery – all for personal profit and cheap
sugar – and by giving his life to Christ.
In our reading from Paul’s letters to the Romans, Paul talks about another form of slavery – the slavery to sin. His letter is addressed to the Christians of Rome and although, because of its length, it appears in the New Testament as the first of his letters it was, in all probability, one of his later ones – a letter setting out Paul’s life-long theology with its emphasis on the codes of moral conduct expected of the followers of Christ.
The book is as relevant to us
today as when it was written in the 1st Century. David Suchet, better known perhaps as Hercule
Poirot, the famous Belgian detective in the TV series, was, a few years back,
interviewed on Desert Island Discs by
Sue Lawley who was intrigued by the strength of his Christian Faith and she
asked him how he had become such an ardent follower of Christ. He responded by
telling her that his faith had come about because somebody had sent him a
letter to read. Sue asked him about the
letter and who had sent it and Suchet responded - “It was a letter which the
apostle Paul sent to the Church in Rome”.
For Suchet, it encapsulated all that Christianity was about and brought
about his complete conversion – over 1,900 years after it had been written.
In the passage read to us this morning, Paul is reminding us that whilst those of us who are Christians have been baptised into the Faith and have received the Holy Spirit, and we may have the Holy Spirit in our minds, there can still lurk within all of us or close to us, evil which can influence us and make us do things which we don’t want to do and know are wrong. He says that “If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwells within me”.
We are all human, yes even us Christians, and whilst we may
aim to be Christ-like we never can be completely like Jesus because none of us,
I would suggest, is completely free of sin at any time.
I am a great believer in spiritual warfare. I have seen it happen on many many occasions when a person becomes close in their relationship with Christ. Inevitably, Satan will turn up and try and destroy that closeness. C.S. Lewis, in his wonderful work “The Screwtape Letters” illustrates this in the lessons which the Senior Devil, Screwtape, sends to his young apprentice, Wormwood, to help the younger Devil turn his “patient” away from his Christian faith. It is interesting that, time and time again, Screwtape tells Wormwood not to try too hard – the patient himself is already doing such a wonderful job himself to achieve Wormwood’s task. We can all be like the patient. Screwtape tells Wormwood that he must work ever more diligently on those patients who have a strong faith because those are the people they most want to win over.
We often hear in sermons about the grace and love of the Trinitarian God – and that is wonderful. That is a grace and love which we should try and emulate at all times – but it is not easy – for often we are not reminded of the way in which Satan can get to us and try and turn us away from our Christian values and prevent us from showing that grace. I know myself that when I have been through difficult times it can be so easy to try and work ourselves up and out of a situation instead of calling upon God to help us – for when we do leave it to God, some wonderful things can actually happen to turn round that difficult problem. It is only by praying constantly and focussing on Jesus as our Saviour, the one sent to die on the cross for our sins, can we overcome the temptations and distractions which might lead us away. As Screwtape instructs his apprentice, preventing the patient from having time to pray is one way of disconnecting him from God. As Paul says, “evil lies close at hand – who will rescue me? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
In our gospel reading we heard Jesus’s famous words of
comfort spoken to the people and in particular addressed to the children and
youngsters in the crowd – “Come to me,
all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.
Perhaps the most comforting words in the whole of the bible. Jesus is saying – don’t keep struggling on trying to solve issues and carry burdens yourself. You will simply burn out and there will be no rest for your soul. Swap the burden with Jesus. Be Christ-like – learn from him and the burden will be much lighter. Remember, evil is always close by and you need to have Christ close by your side – the same Christ who fought off Satan’s temptations in the wilderness so effectively. He is a past master at dealing with Satan. Hand it over to him through prayer.
In recent months I have had to deal with some very difficult personal issues and I am still having to weather a terrific storm which was not forecast. Life can often throw up these storms and it can be tempting to throw our cargo, human or not, over the side in an attempt to save ourselves. That cargo can be our faith and I have seen many lose their faith through a false idea that they can carry the burden themselves – that somehow they can weather the storm alone.
Screwtape knows this in his instructions to let the patient destroy himself, to do the Devil’s work for him. But just as John Newton did, we can hold on to our faithful cargo and call upon Jesus to give us rest from our struggle. It worked for Newton, it can work for you and for me. If we seriously and reverently put our trust in God, we can weather any storm and can truly experience his “amazing grace”.
Amen
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