Sermon: Season of Creation
Week 4 – Pray and act for our Common Home
26 August 2021 –
Archdeacon Mark Long
Esther 7: 1-6,
9-10, 9: 20-22, Psalm 124, and Mark 9:38-50; NRSV
Over the last few weeks, during this Season of Creation, we have been given the opportunity to reflect on how we engage with the systems and structures that direct and control our society, and ultimately impact on creation itself. As I expressed in my sermon last week, this requires people of faith to be a constant witness against the economies of exclusion, and that exclusion is at the root of injustice in our world. Today we are asked to reflect on what it means to pray and act on behalf of our common home. What does prayer and action look like in a world where “[w]e face multiple crises of poverty, inequality, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis[; where w]e have a short window … in which to turn from well worn, broken paths and choose a better story for ourselves and for the world”?[1]
We are presented in our first reading with the essence of the story of Esther. Esther, a Jew of the Diaspora and a minority orphan trafficked into child concubinage and groomed for the sexual pleasure of the Persian King, Ahasuerus, unexpectedly finds herself Queen. Through her unexpected influence and skilled manipulation of the King she is able to avert the genocide of her people.[2] We may wish to ask how a person such as Esther, a Jewish orphan, “the least powerful member (orphan) of the least powerful gender (female) of a powerless people (Jews) in the mighty Persian Empire”[3] manages to turn the world on its head? Part of the answer is that when God desires to act it is generally and inexplicably through the seemingly weakest link: it is true of Esther, it is true of Mary, it is true of many people throughout history; those whom the powers of the day discount are all too often the originators of socio-economic and political upheaval. The multiple crises of our own times can be similarly affected, and despite the Church being side-lined and insignificant in the broader scheme of the 21st century, as people of faith we may yet turn our world on its head. In this story of Esther we see something of what prayer and action may look like.
Today’s Gospel reading offers similar hope. Mark’s Gospel reminds us that discipleship is not for the feint of heart: it is a tough and difficult journey that demands much of us. Today’s reading is not an easy one, and as one commentator adroitly comments, “It contains most things that drive the conscientious into a slough of despondence: exorcisms (verse 38); multiple disturbances in the Greek text, footnoted in responsible English translations (verses 42, 44, 45, 46, 49); hard sayings of Jesus (verses 39-41) that are logically incoherent (verses 48–50) or manifestly outrageous (verses 42-47).”[4] And yet this Scripture passage gives helpful insight into how people of faith – you and me – how we might pray and act. We find the disciples seeking Jesus’ approval of their limited definition of belonging as they report in about someone not of their group exorcising demons in Jesus’ name. Jesus’ response is instructive: “Do not stop [them]; ... Whoever is not against us is for us.”[5] I can only but imagine the look on their faces, and their subsequent protestations in hearing those words. However, for us “[a]dhering to the spirit of [these words] stresses [the importance of] gracious reception of anyone whose action, bold or modest, genuinely conforms to Jesus’ character”[6] and asks of us that our actions equally conform. The lack of social, political, and economic justice in the world suggests that such inclusivity is the hardest of actions, and that it is not through our own strength, but only through the presence of God’s Spirit and our openness to God’s Spirit, that such justice is possible.
In Mark’s Gospel authentic prayer and just action also require what appears ‘manifestly outrageous’, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; … And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; … And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out … .”[7] Hearing these words, we do of course need to remind ourselves that in Mark’s Gospel Jesus’ speaks often in parables,[8] and while we may be tempted to be scandalised by these words we need to recognise that Jesus is not advocating for literal self-mutilation.[9] While encouraging us to be inclusive of others in our conformity to Jesus character, Mark here is also highlighting that Jesus calls us to a vigorous discipleship that rejects any form of abuse, either of ourselves or of others – and in the context of the Season of Creation – of the broader aspects of Creation.
In the context of our theme on this 4th Sunday in the Season of Creation we are being asked to apply these Scriptural principles to our life on the African continent and on a global scale. What might prayer and action for our common home, and in this context our African home, look like? Abundant Africa, a development process and coalition of organisations working towards the transformation of Africa funded by Tearfund says in a recent report, “Some say that Africa is failing, doomed to chaos and poverty and reliance. Others say that Africa is rising, but as a slave to a narrative of greed, power, violence, individualism and extraction, to the benefit of just a few. We see another way - a courageous choice to turn from these two single stories and tell a new story, one created by the agency and voices of all African citizens: an Abundant Africa. An Abundant African economy could be built upon shalom, upon African values of innovation, freedom and relationship. It could reduce poverty and inequality, honour human dignity, care for creation – and in so doing be an economy that will lead the world.”[10]
I find this an inspiring vision, no matter which continent or nation one may wish to apply it, but especially for Africa; and part of the inspiration for me is that it reflects the principles of faith, and of our journey through this Season of Creation. It is also an impossible vision, as impossible as Esther’s averting the Jewish genocide by the Persians, as impossible as the miracle of 1994 was for South Africa, as impossible as any diverted disaster throughout the course of history may have seemed; but with God all things are possible, and that needs to be the focus of our prayer.
Let us find the courage to act and to pray, and trust that however bold or modest such prayers and actions may be, that God will transform the humanly impossible into the humanly possible. Let that be our hope, and our consolation.
I close with a prayer of shelter and shadow by Irish Theologian and Poet, Pádraig Ó Tuama:
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