St Edward's Day sermon

A sermon preached at a St Edward's School Communion Service for St Edward's Day:

Last week the Archbishop of York accused a group of people working in finance of being "bank robbers" and "asset strippers." That is not language that you expect an Archbishop to use of others, especially not at a posh banquet for the Institute of Worshipful Company of International Bankers at Drapers Hall in the City of London.

The people that he was talking about worked in the finance industry and had made £190 million by the sending shares in the large bank HBOS plummeting, putting the jobs of all who work for HBOS at risk and putting the money of all who invest in HBOS at risk. These are people who, for their own profit and gain, were prepared to play with the jobs and savings of thousands of other people. And that is why they were branded "bank robbers" and "asset strippers" by the Archbishop of York last week.

A situation like this brings into sharp focus the question of the way in which we choose to live our lives and the kind of society in which we want to live. Do we want to become people and a society which regards ‘greed as good’ (which was the mantra in the film Wall Street) or do we want to be people and a society that live in love, as in our reading from the first letter of John (1 John 4. 13-16)? We have a choice. Our lives are not pre-determined and the decisions we make down can alter our lives for good or ill.

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 14. 27-33), Jesus says that we need to make those decisions carefully, in a considered way. He tells two stories to illustrate this point. In the first, a man wants to build a tower but because he doesn’t make any plans he only gets as far as laying the foundations and then runs out of money. As a result, he becomes an object of ridicule. In the second, a King realises that he doesn’t have enough soldiers to win a battle against another King with a bigger army and so he asks for terms of peace. In the first story, the builder doesn’t plan ahead and can’t finish the job but in the second story the King does plan ahead and wins peace for his people.

Jesus says that if we are to be people and a society that seek to follow him and live in love then we have to plan ahead, think it through and count the cost in order to see it through and stay the course.

It is not easy living in love with others because others are not easy to live with. Jesus says it is like carrying a cross and walking towards your own death because what you do is what he did; you sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. It is much easier the Bible says to live for yourself, to be like the asset strippers and bank robbers, and try to make as much and keep as much for yourself as possible. Many people live their lives that way today but, if you are on the receiving end of someone else’s greed, if you lose your job because someone else has made money from the collapse of your employer, you quickly realise what a miserable way to live life that selfishness actually is.

It is not easy living in love with others Jesus says. You need to sit down and count the cost first before beginning. But ultimately it is the only way not to destroy ourselves, our society and our planet. Fortunately, there are many that have followed Jesus in carrying their cross and walking the narrow path.

The man that we remember today and after whom our school is named was one of those people. He was a man of great power because he was a King in England yet he chose to live as a witness to Jesus by the way he lived his life and the way in which he ruled his people. For this he became known as the Confessor; Edward the Confessor.

His prudent management of his kingdom gave England more than twenty years of peace and prosperity, with freedom from foreign domination, at a time when powerful neighbours might well have dominated a less adroit ruler. He reduced taxes as he lived off the income of his own lands and did not have to pay for expensive military campaigns and so prosperity and the population grew under his reign. to around one million.

He was diligent in public and private worship, generous to the poor, and accessible to subjects who sought redress of grievances. Instead of travelling to Rome on pilgrimage he was responsible for building Westminster Abbey which was consecrated one week before his death. He was buried there after his death in 1066 and the location of his tomb there was rediscovered only three years ago, in 2005.

Edward’s life shows that it is possible to have great power and wealth and use this for the benefit of others, not yourself. This is the way of life into which Jesus calls us whether we have wealth and power or not. It was Jesus’ call to live in love that Edward confessed and sought to follow in his life. Which will we choose? The turmoil in the financial markets, the asset stripping of HBOS, the Archbishop’s speech, this service, these readings, the example of Edward the Confessor’s life; these are all opportunities for us to count the cost of our life choices and to decide whether we believe that greed is good and seek to live our lives selfishly or whether we will hear the call of Jesus, as Edward the Confessor did, and take up our cross to live a life of love for others.

O God, who called your servant Edward to an an earthly throne That he might advance your heavenly kingdom, and gave him zeal for your Church and love for your people: Mercifully grant that we who commemorate him this day may be fruitful in good works, and attain to the glorious crown of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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The Band - King Harvest.