Polycarp remembers

A sermon preached at Digswell Village Church on the admission of children to communion, 30 June 2013

The year is 155. The Church is being persecuted. We see two men walking along a country path towards a farmhouse. They have been walking for several hours and it is late in the afternoon. The older one is doing most of the talking as they enter and look around:

Well, here we are Antonius. Not yet dark. No sign of our being followed yet. Thank you for coming all this way with me. It's dangerous to be found with an old bishop like me in this time of persecution. The police have probably some idea where we have gone. They are bound to have made one of our two boys they arrested talk by now. ..  We'd better find you something to eat so that you can get on your way back to town. Let's see what we can find in the larder. Perhaps a can of baked beans. Ah. Here we are!

You were asking me about what I remember of the apostle John. It was so long ago and at my age, I am amazed at the detail I can recall. It's a funny feeling, because I asked him once how he could remember in so much detail the things the Lord said and did.  'Polycarp', he said to me, 'when you're older you'll find that certain special occasions get fixed in your mind. You can relive them without any effort. That's how it was the last time we shared supper with the Lord'.

Did you hear anything just then? Are the soldiers coming already? No, nothing. I'd better remember that they will be noisier than that. They never remove their armour and weapons. I think they are proud of their appearance! And please don't ask me to move on to another refuge. Remember my dream of sleeping on the burning pillow? If they come for me tomorrow, I shall be ready.

But eat up. You should be on your way before it gets really dark. As I was saying, John was so clear about it. He explained everything that Jesus did that evening - How it felt special in a way that they did not understand until later - The things that Jesus said to them. You know, they seem really special to me tonight. Just like the Lord at that last supper, I may be taken by the police tomorrow to the Prefect and then to the arena. It's wonderful to imagine the scene in the upper room and to think through the words. 'Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. .. I am going to prepare a place for you ..' Dear Lord, I think I may be coming to take you up on your promise very soon!

But, Antonius, you need not worry about that yourself yet. They always go for the leaders, so it's old Bishop Polycarp first. Remember some of the other things John told us Jesus said that evening, 'If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father and he will send you another Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth.' We all know, in our community, Antonius, how important that Spirit is to us. Without it we could not continue, and without it I don't think I could face what may happen tomorrow. Did you hear anything then? No, we are left with some peace yet.

But what was still more important, John made it clear, was what Jesus did. You know we can often say far more by our actions than we can with words. In many ways the meaning is more precise - we know what an action means, a bit like we do with a piece of music, but we can't pin it down in words. So imagine what it was like what the Lord knelt down and washed his friends' feet. How did they feel? What did they see and think when they looked into his eyes? What did they think on the next day when they had all betrayed him and he hung, dying? What then two days later when they began to realise that there was much more to come and so much of that last evening together began to make sense? They remembered the words, 'Do this in remembrance of me'. What could be easier to remember well? What could be easier to re-present? He took, he blessed, he broke. .. 'Take, eat, this is my body' .. 'This is my blood of the new covenant' .. 'Do this in remembrance of me'.

And that is what we all have done and shared in, in all the years since our Lord was with us on earth. I shiver with excitement when I remember that I learnt that from a man who was there at the very time. Such a clear and simple thing to remember, but with such deep meaning, now that we see it in the light of what happened afterwards. It could still be being repeated hundreds of years from now!

You are right. It's getting late. You should be on your way. Make sure you go straight back to town. Don't call by our other houses on the way. The police are bound to be searching them. Tell everyone I am not going to go further. If they come, they come. And now, let us say farewell. The Lord be with you. ...

Well, there he goes. I hope he survives these troubled times. If he does I'm sure he will keep the tradition alive. It's quiet and nearly dark now. I'll get some sleep. No-one will come before morning. ...

Lord Jesus, thank you for the clear memory of you given to us by the apostles. Thank you that I knew your apostle John. Thank you for the simple acts of taking, blessing and breaking. Thank you for being with us in the bread and the wine. Thank you for allowing me to stand in your place and take, bless and break, so many times, for so many people and even as far away as Rome. ... 'My peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Trouble not your hearts' ...

Yawn. Ah, here is the dawn. Now we shall see. .. Lord, send your Spirit to strengthen me today. Let's look along the path. .. There we are. I thought it would not be long. Listen to them come! Look at their armour shining in the morning sun! Hello, there. Who are you looking for? Yes, I am Bishop Polycarp. Come in and sit down for a moment. It is a long walk from the town, and you look as if you have not had much sleep! Would you like something to eat before we return to the town? I think I can find some baked beans. ..

Polycarp returned with the police, reaching the stadium at the end of the day. When asked, Polycarp refused to deny Christ. Because the games were over, the Prefect could not throw him to the beasts so he was tied to a stake, stabbed and burnt. He had his burning pillow. Polycarp was the first Christian martyr outside the Bible whose story was recorded in detail.

 

The Lawyer's story - Luke 10.25-37

We are in a wine bar in the neighbourhood of the law courts  in Jerusalem. A small group of lawyers are comparing notes on their recent legal experiences.

So, I’d been wanting to meet him for some time. I’d heard he was a remarkable teacher and as you know we’ve been debating what we have heard of his teaching in the last few weeks. I was out of town recently and when I heard that he was in the next village, I hurried over there. I spent most of the journey thinking what I would ask him. I wasn’t looking for a trick question. I was not planning to catch him out. I did not need to ask him what the scriptures say because of course we know them well enough. But he’d been getting the reputation for saying something new, for going beyond the text in a quite unexpected way. I could not decide what to say.

Serve me right for trying to plan. In the end I surprised myself by going up to him and saying ‘Teacher’, (the right start, I thought) ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ As you know that’s a question which has been bothering a lot of us. We all feel strongly that God has something to come for us all, but we don’t know how to approach it. He had often been reported as giving startling insights into these rather basic questions.

Well, his answer was a question. Of course, that’s not unusual in this kind of discussion. He was not trying to test me any more than I was trying to test him. That was the next step in the debate. He needed to know where I was coming from. So I replied with the texts from Deuteronomy and from Leviticus. And I was rather pleased when he agreed with me that loving God first and then my neighbour as myself was the right answer. I could have added further texts from the Psalms - Psalm 86 ‘I give thanks to you O Lord my God with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name for ever’, or Psalm 111 ‘I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation’ ... What? Yes I agree that listing all the texts would be overkill, and as I said, I only mentioned the first two.

Then I stopped thinking and got rather mischievous. Loving my neighbour as myself is open to many interpretations, so I asked him who is my neighbour. Well, the first part of the conversation was important enough. I’m quite convinced that a full love of God is absolutely essential and I’m glad he agreed, but I would not have gone as far as he did after that. I can’t stop thinking about it and nor can the others who were with me.

You see, at that point the conversation changed direction. We stopped discussing scripture and its interpretation, which is what we all like to do, and he started telling a story. Everyone’s been telling it over and over again since. There was this man, you see (have you heard it?) who set off from Jerusalem to Jericho. Well, that was a stupid thing to do on his own, without a mobile too! It’s asking for trouble. So it was no surprise when he got mugged. Yes, I know, you’ve heard the rest - how in the end the only person who would help was someone I would not even stop to talk to. I mean, I don’t really blame the priest and the levite. They are important people and probably had to get somewhere and were running late. But that Samaritan! We do so much to avoid them that I could not even say the word at the end of our conversation. When he asked me who was the neighbour, all I could say was that the neighbour was the one who showed kindness. I wouldn’t even expect a Samaritan to obey God’s law, particularly as we, he and I, had agreed it at the beginning. And then to top it all, he told me, and everyone around, to go and do what the Samaritan did.

So it’s really made me stop and think. Quite a few things. I’ve had to think about what I mean by love. Because the neighbour is to be loved as I love myself - and I feed myself and clothe myself and keep up my house. That’s the simple bit. But you all know what I am like. We’re all quite similar really. I expect a lot of myself professionally, and pride myself on my knowledge of the law, and sometimes I get depressed when I lose a debate or don’t do something as well as I might. I get cross with myself, and I’ve begun to realise that in this kind of frame of mind, I don’t really love myself.

It all turns out to be much bigger than I thought, bigger than just the simple story, striking though it is. In thinking about being gentle with my neighbour, I realised that I have to be gentle with myself too. And I looked at exactly what the Samaritan did. I was, as I said, amazed that he did anything at all. He did what was necessary and he did what he could at the time. Then he went on and did his own business. He did not forget the traveller, but provided for him, and left him in the care of others. So this love of our neighbour is something we share with each other. It’s not something we own ourselves. We do what we can, when we can.

              I could go on. I got really stuck into the deeper implications of the story. Further new ideas came to me as I was falling asleep, but I’ve forgotten them now. ‘Go and do as he did’ is still a challenge. Sometimes I do, sometimes I miss the chance, sometimes I don’t want to. What I’m finding is that if I start on the right lines, with loving God, I seem to be able to pick up the opportunities to love my neighbour. When I’m tied up with my own agenda - and that can include study of the law - I usually blow it. So I have to remember the whole story, and then, things seem to happen. You look as if you don’t believe me. Think about it, see if it works. I’m thirsty after all this talking. My round I think?

Peter and Paul on their feast day

29 June is the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul. A number of years ago at Digswell Village Church I presented this dialogue between the two of them and a television reporter who turned up to interview them, and was not particularly welcome. Yes, another anachronism, but we get a different angle that way, and all sorts of contemporary questions emerge,

Peter: Well, Paul, they're celebrating our day down there again today.

Paul: Yes, I wonder what they are all doing? Some won't even remember that it's us today.

Peter: Maybe, but why do we have to share a day anyway? You've got a day to yourself on January 25.

Paul: Ah, yes, the celebration of my conversion on the road to Damascus. But what about 22 February? At least for the catholics that celebrates your founding of the See of Rome, as the first Pope.

Peter: True enough, but that is not very exciting for all those protestants. They are more interested in the earlier part of my life.

Paul: Yes, that was rather important! You have a great advantage over me since you knew the Lord personally over several years.

Peter: I was very blessed to be chosen by Jesus to be one of his companions.

Paul: Not just one, Peter, but a special one. He gave you your name, Peter, the rock. 'On this rock I will build my church.' How about that, then?

Peter: Yes, but what a rock! My pride and impatience made me do many silly things. I would not believe Jesus when he said he was going to Jerusalem to be killed. I was even so stupid as to tell him He was wrong. and then I betrayed him at the time of his greatest need. Not once but three times.

Paul: Yes, yes, yes. We've been over this many times. Remember that you were forgiven and remember all that has happened since. And don't forget, I am no better. At least you did not persecute Christ's body, the young church. I did everything I could to arrest its members and I helped at the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr.

Peter: Indeed. But we don't need to score points off each other here. A bit too much like pride, huh?

Paul: Fair enough. .. Oh no!

Peter: What?

Paul: Here comes that dreadful television reporter again. He'll be wanting an interview for the people down there. Let's get away before he sees us.

Peter: Too late. We'd better get it over with quickly!

Reporter: (talking to viewers) .. and now I've just managed to get onto this cloud and to meet Saints Peter and Paul. Hi there Pete, Paul! I wonder if you would like to say a few words to our viewers on this special day? How about you, Pete?

Peter: Saint Peter, if you don't mind.

R: sure, sure. Or you P.. Saint Paul.

Paul: well, er , let me see.

R: I mean, people down there are not too sure about you guys nowadays. You know, Paul, they think you invented Christianity by changing it from what the first apostles preached, and you, Peter, may not even have been the first Bishop of Rome.

Peter: Now hold on. There are always people who want to believe that Christianity is a man-made ethic and no more.

Paul: That's right. Then they can comfortably ignore it, since to them it's only human and so it does not need God.

R: Right, right. So what would you say to those people?

Peter: They are wrong.

R: That all?

Paul: Not much more to say. If that's what people want to believe, that's what they will believe.

R: So what can be done?

Peter: Christians pray for them. We pray for them. But only when God the Holy Spirit confronts them in his own way will they turn to Christ and believe. Even Paul, who is one of the most intelligent Saints I know here in Paradise, was converted by meeting Christ, and not by arguments in his head.

R: Well, that's something to think about, isn't it, folks! And both saints in complete agreement too. But you didn't always agree did you?

Peter: Now don't start being provocative again. This isn't the Today programme, you know.

Paul: I always felt it was important to tell people when they were wrong.

Peter: You certainly did. They were all scared of you. So was I. Poor Corinthians! Poor Galatians!

Paul: Come on Peter, you know better than that and you know me better than that. It is false charity to say 'there, there' to someone who has made a mistake or who has sinned, even if he is a great apostle. It is better that the sin is recognised, confessed, and then it is over, it is forgiven.

R: That may be so, but congregations and ministers don't like that very much these days. People think being a Christian is more about being nice to people than confronting sin and growing in holiness.

Peter: which is exactly what we had to do. Good to see you have some insight Mr ..

Paul: No answer to that really. I, and Peter, preached Christ crucified and you can't get more fundamental than that!

Peter: Quite right. I don't know what people want down there. The pride of people individually and in the church is enormous. God is God, he revealed himself to us in Christ Jesus and we preached through the Holy Spirit. Take it or leave it.

R: I see. Well, viewers, this is rather more uncompromising than I had expected for a celebration! Let's try another line. .. Saints Peter and Paul, both of you wrote letters, and people sometimes read them in the Bible. Paul, you may not have written all the ones that bear your name, but ..

Peter: There he goes again. More provocation. Look, buster, Paul wrote some very good letters. It is true that some of it is difficult to understand ..

Paul: Hey, I say!

Peter: Oh, yes it is. When you get carried away, Paul, you pile phrase upon phrase and image upon image. You write a whole page without a full stop!

Paul: That's not fair. It's not may fault if I was inspired!

R: Yes, yes, but our time is getting short. Peter, what do you think was Paul's best passage?

Peter: That's impossible. You people below just want sound bites and catch phrases which you can then put your own spin on. You can't do that with Paul.

R: Well, people are so busy, you know.

Peter: That's no excuse when it comes to the word of God. Well, here's what I'd choose, because, if they fit this description, the Kingdom of God will be well established on earth.

            Love is ...

You know, that is a frightening and humbling list if you look at it the right way.

R: Fine, fine. How about you Paul. Peter didn't write so many letters, but ..

Paul: So what. Peter did so many other things. Anyway, this is easy. People should praise God in all they do, and Peter got it just right with

            Blessed be the God and Father

R: That's an excellent quote to end our conversation. A final word, before we return to the studio.

Paul: I hope people will pay attention to our comments and pray about them.

Peter: Absolutely. It's not complicated. It's about responding to God's call, through Jesus Christ,  and then living in the Spirit. Goodbye.