Start:Stop - celebrating and encouraging greater diversity

Bible reading

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10. 38 – 42)

Meditation

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp. He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on that example, the rabbis said that taking care of guests is greater than receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them (Luke 10). So, Jesus’ words to Martha, while they can appear critical, were not intended as a denigration of the role she was fulfilling, which, as we have thought, has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture. Jesus had already affirmed Martha's hospitality by welcoming and receiving all she offered. However, he also wanted to affirm Mary’s action as well because Mary's action points to an alternative role for women which could only begin to be realised as a result of his affirmation.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. That was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirmed Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently put people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel, Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women; presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes. This counter-balance to the patriarchy of the time was necessary in order to signal the value of both women and men in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church. Ultimately, this has led to the point that we have reached relatively recently in the Church of England of ordaining women as priests and bishops.

We know that within the Church and wider society, including the City of London, gender equality and full equality across the diversity agenda is still to be fully realised. Here at St Stephen Walbrook we have held two events recently regarding gender diversity; a meeting of Women and the Church regarding the ongoing campaign for gender justice in the Church of England and ‘Women in the City’ an event which highlighted women’s involvement in the civic, cultural, charitable and social opportunities in the City of London and argued that gender balance on boards encourages better leadership and governance. At St Stephen Walbrook, we wish to work more fully with a range of organisations in the City to celebrate and encourage greater diversity.

In Christ’s Church and kingdom there should be no gender divide in how we serve and follow him. So, like Martha, each of us (male and female) can practice and value the ministries of welcome, hospitality and service of all and, like Mary, each of us (female and male) can practice and value making Jesus the central focus of our lives and learning as his disciples.

Prayer

Fathering and mothering God, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that they be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of humankind with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to division, strife and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace.

May we choose the better part and sit at your feet as your disciple.

Loving God, you hold us in your hands for we are all made in your image. Help us to celebrate our differences. Help us to use our diversity to share with each other the richness of our many cultures, languages and backgrounds. Challenge us again lest we wither and perish, by holding to the familiar when it has lost its savour. Help us to dissolve the barriers of difference and work for a just society in which none are despised and discriminated against on the basis of false divisions and in which each is valued for their true humanity.

May we choose the better part and sit at your feet as your disciple.

Living God, we pray for your holy people and for the Church. We ask that every member may be freed to serve you in truth and grace. You have visited us through women who have been filled with your Spirit. You have blessed us all with dreams for a common future and gifts for a common life, in all things keep us faithful to the message of your gospel, that as women and men we may together bear witness to your love in Christ Jesus. As your daughters and sons, may we be brought nearer to a new vision of your love.

May we choose the better part and sit at your feet as your disciple.

Blessing

Sharing the good things you give us, dissolving barriers of difference, securing equality, working for a just society, serving you in truth and grace, sitting at your feet as your disciple. May all those blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric Whitacre - Five Hebrew Love Songs.

Church: unlikely people living, serving and leading in counter-cultural ways

This morning I preached at St John the Divine in Richmond, an Early Gothic Revival church with a marvellous early twentieth century Arts & Crafts reordering.

In 1905, Arthur Grove extended the church by adding the sanctuary and Lady Chapel. Together with friends from the Arts and Crafts Movement (including Eric Gill and N.H.J. Westlake) he created an harmonious extension. In 1921, a large blue and gold cross, carved by a nun from one of the London convents, was hung and in the 1960s the Stations of the Cross were carved by Freda Skinner, a pupil of Henry Moore, based on the Stations by Eric Gill in Westminster Cathedral. Eric Gill’s own work in the church can be seen in the stone carving over the sacristy door and on the triptych. The triptych behind the altar was completed in 1908 by N.H.J. Westlake who also painted the sanctuary ceiling which illustrates passages from the Book of the Revelation, chapter 14.

The sermon I preached was as follows:

Maude Royden, Elsie Chamberlain, Isabella Gilmore, Betty Ridley, Una Kroll, Christian Howard, Monica Furlong, Joyce Bennett, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Constance Coltman, Margaret Webster.

I wonder how of these names you recognise? I originally found out about these women through the website of Women and the Church (or WATCH) who point out that, though they were all icons in the campaign to get women ordained, as with many women’s lives, they are in the ‘hidden gallery’ of history.

To give you a very brief flavour of some of their stories: Elsie Chamberlain was the first female full chaplain in the RAF; Una Kroll famously shouted, ‘We asked for bread and you gave us a stone’ (a reference to Matthew 7:7-11) when in 1978 the General Synod refused to allow women to be ordained, creating the momentum for the Movement for the Ordination of Women to be formed; and Florence Li Tim-Oi was the first female Anglican priest, ordained during the war to serve behind Japanese lines in China. Since beginning my ministry at St Martin-in-the-Fields, I have discovered more about the ministries of Joyce Bennett and Florence Li-Tim-Oi, in particular, because of their connections with that church.

WATCH argue that, although women have been a majority in the church, their ministries have mostly been hidden in the background, carrying out children’s work, making tea, cleaning, in the office, caring for neighbours, letting the vicar know when someone needs a visit. In other words, fulfilling the sort of role that Martha seems to have played in the Gospel reading (Luke 10. 38 – end) we have heard today.

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp in today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 18.1-10a). He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on this example, the rabbis say that taking care of guests is greater than receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them (Luke 10). So, Jesus’ words to Martha are not intended as a denigration of the role she is fulfilling, which has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture, but point instead to an alternative role which has eventually led to the point that we have reached relatively recently in the Church of England of ordaining women as priests and bishops.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. That was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirmed Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently put people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel, Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women; presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes.

This counter-balance to the patriarchy of the time was necessary in order to signal the value of both women and men in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church. The Epistle (Colossians 1. 15-28) also emphasizes this for us through its claim that all things in heaven and on earth were created through Jesus and for Jesus and that, as he is the head of the body, the church, in him all things hold together. All things means all of us; whatever our differences of gender, race, disability, sexuality or religion. Christ holds all together in his body, the Church; meaning that, while we all have a different parts to play, we are all equally valued and necessary if Christ’s body, the Church, is to function as he intends and reveal him as he really is.

The Church of England has made significant recent progress in this respect in relation to gender equality, with women now increasingly taking their place alongside men as bishops and at every level in the Church of England. Those women named on the WATCH website played key roles in the early stages of the journey that has led to this point. This was recently reinforced for me, as I had the opportunity to attend with others from the congregation at St Martin’s, the consecration at Canterbury Cathedral of Jo Bailey-Wells as Bishop of Dorking and then, that same evening, host at St Stephen Walbrook an ‘At Home’ for WATCH during which our curate, Sally Muggeridge, celebrated her first Eucharist while also becoming the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist in that church.

While the Church of England has made significant recent progress in relation to gender equality, there is much further to go in relation to other aspects of diversity as the conversations at General Synod this week regarding sexuality and disability indicate.

In a debate at Synod on Nurturing Senior Leaders in the Church of England, Revd Zoe Heming spoke about the Church as the bride of Christ. She spoke of Christ as “the one who rode into Jerusalem on a ridiculous, baby donkey, yet eclipsed the Roman horses and chariots and their victory parades.” By contrast, though, she expressed immense frustration that the Church, Christ’s Bride, continues to look so very different to her Groom, when it comes to nurturing the vocations of disabled people.

“The essential characteristic of our church,” she said, “must be of unlikely people living, serving and leading in counter-cultural ways, where the weakest are not tolerated, pitied or accommodated but prized, cherished & followed. This needs to be deliberate and visible for all to see - and maybe even mock, as some undoubtedly will have done, that day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on his donkey.”

Whether we use the metaphor of the Church as the bride of Christ or as the body of Christ, we are called to model our lives and actions on Christ. In our Gospel reading, we see Jesus holding together sisters who have become frustrated with each other’s choices. He affirms the different ministries which both have as, although his response to Martha can appear critical, he has already received and welcomed her ministry but wants to also affirm that of Mary as well. Similarly, we, like Martha, can practice and value the ministries of welcome, hospitality and service of all and, like Mary, can practice and value making Jesus the central focus of our lives and learning. While our focus today has been on the ministry of women, this is as inspiration to us all to work towards and work within the full equality of all within the body of Christ, the Church.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jonathan Dove - The Three Kings.