Crossing boundaries

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

Jesus was amazed or surprised. This is worthy of note because the Gospels only record that Jesus was surprised twice. He was firstly amazed that his own, hometown people rejected him, and secondly that this gentile officer accepted him (Matthew 8. 1 - 13).

There is much about this story and this officer that is surprising. We see his humility in that, although he is the local official of the ruling power, he says he is not worthy to have Jesus, an itinerant Jewish preacher, in his home. When the same story is told in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 7. 1 - 10), we find that the local Jewish elders testify to the officer’s love of the Jewish people, to the extent that he himself had built a synagogue for the locals in Capernaum. As a result, the Jewish elders are prepared to advocate on his behalf. Then we read that slave is ‘very dear’ to him. There is much about this man that is at odds with the general practice of those who have positions of power, particularly when the position of power held is that of an oppressive ruling elite.

So there is much about this man to which Jesus would respond. The officer cares about others and he does so regardless of nationality, religion and class. His love of others enables him to cross boundaries between people. There is even the possibility (in the Greek word used of the slave) of a same-sex relationship existing between the officer and his servant! The officer is an intercessor. He speaks on behalf of his servant and sends other intercessors (the Jewish elders) in his name who speak on his behalf. As a result, nothing is mentioned in the story about the servant who was healed having faith. It is the officer who had faith and stood in the gap for the servant by interceding for him.

His faith was seen in that he believed that Jesus would help his servant and in his realisation that Jesus didn’t need to come his home in order to do so. The Jewish elders didn’t think Jesus would help a gentile soldier unless they had proved that he was good to the Jews. Yet, in order to receive help from Jesus no good works are required. The Jewish elders wanted to prove to Jesus that the officer was worthy of Jesus’ help and yet the officer himself stated that he was not worthy. His faith was seen in his trust that Jesus was someone who would act with compassion and love, not that he saw himself as good enough to earn that love. Jesus showed in this story that the only thing he assesses is whether or not we have that kind of faith.

The officer understood Jesus’ ability to heal in terms of his being part of a chain of command in which he was able to issue orders and where what he ordered occurs. The fact that Jesus commended the officer’s faith doesn’t mean that we then have to accept that the officer was right about Jesus being part of this chain of command. The story can be understood in that way and often has been, but what Jesus commended was the officer’s faith, not the means or logic by which he arrived at that faith.

Jesus continually taught that true leadership is shown through service. He reversed our common expectations about the way in which power should be held and exercised. The Roman officer, by caring about others and doing so regardless of nationality, religion and class, was actually living out in practice what Jesus was teaching to others. As faith without deeds is dead, it may actually be the officer’s practice of servant leadership to which Jesus was referring when he said, “I tell you, I have never found faith like this, not even in Israel!”

Like Jesus then, if we allow ourselves, we will be surprised by this story. In it, the gentile, the pagan, the one who did not believe in the God of Israel, the one who was the representative of the oppressive ruling power, the enemy, was the one who crossed boundaries of race, religion, class (and possibly also sexuality), to show real faith in practice. Despite the differences between them, this man and Jesus recognized a commonality of practice in each other. The officer said to Jesus you seem to be my real commanding officer and Jesus said to the officer I see real faith lived out in practice in you. In the synergy that existed between them the servant recovered and was found to be well once again.

In a world where racist xenopobia is on the rise, we will do well to pay attention to the lessons of today’s Gospel reading. During Interfaith Week, it is vital to state that: “Alongside all of good will, we will work to tackle with renewed determination the challenges of poverty, ignorance, injustice, crime and violence, and social fragmentation and to help shape a society where all feel at home; all are valued and justly treated; and all have a chance to thrive.”

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Anthony - If It Be Your Will.

Boundary Breaker VI

The world is full of divisions -
political, religious, national, personal -
‘them’ and ‘us’ - Jew and Gentile,
slave and free, male and female.
Tribal identities, given at birth,
with rich histories constraining love.
I am I, not you. You are a mystery to me.

Stripped, self-emptying, not counting
equality something to be grasped and held,
become nothing, become human,
become obedient to death,
crucified by my own creation.
Stepping beyond identity, renouncing
my inheritance, heritage and lineage.

I in you, you in me, one with you,
you with me, breaking boundaries,
becoming other, other becoming me.
The scapegoat removing mimesis,
the cross road uniting nations,
lion and lamb lying down together.
All roads lead to heaven,
a pilgrim people
in a new Canterbury Tale,
unresting till they enter
the green and pleasant land
of New Jerusalem.

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Hubert Parry - Jerusalem.

Boundary Breaker V

Party-man, un-ascetic, no hair shirts,
locusts or wild honey for me.
I keep the party going, turning water into wine
sit at table with those despised
and those esteemed.
Prostitutes pour perfume on my feet,
wiping those same feet with their hair;
preparing me for sacrificial service.
I then make washing others’ feet
the mark of those who follow me.
I welcome women to sit at my feet
as disciples, to choose the better part,
for all are welcome to sit and eat
at my Messianic feast;
just as each then becomes
the servant, not Master, of all. 
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Larry Norman - I Am A Servant.

Boundary Breaker IV

Scar-man, cutting yourself with rocks.
Among the tombs, in the place of death,
screaming among the hills,
breaking chains that bound.
You have the force and voices
of a mob within.
Internal torment visible in skin.
Scar-man, cutting yourself with rocks.

See my hands, my feet, my side.
Nails and spear bit in skin.
Hands, arms, hammers raised
with force to force spiked metal
through flesh to nail sin and death.
The mob without make me
to carry the mob within.
I am scar-man too, one with you.
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This Picture - The Offering.

Boundary Breaker III

Ill, ill, lying by Siloam pool
with no way to enter its stirred waters.
Stuck, stuck, like sinking in quicksand,
no panic you think, relax, stay afloat.
Amazing how we accommodate disaster!
‘Do you want to get well?’ I say.
Have you accepted your lot?
Are you happy being stuck?
Change, change, the offer of choice -
‘Get up, take your bed and walk.’
Dare you to move, dare you to change.
Dare you to move, and you do!  

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Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - God Is In The House.

Boundary Breaker II

You reached out and touched me -
aged and frail from constant menstruation,
seepage and flow of life’s blood,
stained and strained you reached out
to touch a hem, the merest flicker of a thread,
yet connecting and exchanging,
receiving purity for uncleanness,
healing for disease, transferring your afflictions
onto me; the pure one made unclean,
the healer become the diseased,
we change places, you rising, I falling,
partners for a moment in the dance of love.

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Mumford and Sons - I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends.

Boundary Breaker I

Part 1 of my latest six-part poem entitled 'Boundary Breaker':

Our enemy, my friend.
Titus, dressed in your lorica plumata,
paludamentum flaring round you in the breeze
and fastened at your shoulder,
the very image of the professional officer;
vine-stick as symbol of your authority
to order this one to "Go" and that one to "Come".
"Go," "Come," "Do this," "Do that,"
and your servant, your slave, simply acts.
Yet this man that you order so and so
is dear to you, very dear, sharing your bed,
your own pais, ailing and sick,
for whom you will intercede.
Our enemy, their friend,
my elders testify to me; you love our people,
your built our synagogue, your love
radical in action crosses boundaries of race,
religion, sexuality and class.
Your love is faith in action.
If faith without deeds is dead,
your faith is alive, more so than any in Israel.

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Paul Simon - Love And Hard Times.