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The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
O God, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running to obtain thy promises, may be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 21)
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The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
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A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
✛
The price of greatness is responsibility
Coming back from my vacation this summer I watched the film ‘Darkest Hour’ on the plane. If you haven’t seen it, it is a film about Winston Churchill’s rise to become Prime Minister of Great Britain at a time when it looked certain that the war would be lost. A very complex personality, Churchill had his enemies, made mistakes, ruffled feathers, and exasperated the people who worked with him. Nevertheless, he is still known as one of the greatest leaders of the 20thCentury and, of course, he knew it! For many of us, what comes with greatness is fame and recognition; wealth and fortune; it is the lure of success and still the driving force of ambition in the United States and all over the world. Churchill was understood all of that but he had a very different understanding of the consequences of greatness: As he most famously said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.” 1)
“Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.””
2000 years ago, children had no legal status. They had no rights, they were the property of their parents, and if they were orphaned, they were the poorest of all. Thus, when Jesus takes a child and places that child in the midst of his disciples as an example, he is not advocating childcare or the setting up of Sunday Schools – he is challenging those around him to relate directly with those who have nothing. It is a beautiful enacted parable in response to the discussion about greatness that the disciples have been having on the road, seemingly privately.
After arguing about who is the greatest, the disciples watch their Lord and Master receive a child as his equal, making yet again the preferential option for the poor. The Word made Flesh – the one who humbled himself for our sakes by becoming a child – receives a child and teaches his disciples the cost of greatness.
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
Today we launch our Annual Appeal for 2019 when we ask parishioners and friends to make a pledge to this great Church and Choir School and, perhaps, the Lord’s words will be an encouragement to us as we all reflect on how much to give.
As I prayed about this Sunday’s sermon, a line from today’s Epistle reading kept coming to mind and it is a line that is also an encouragement and a warning: “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”
James is echoing the words of the Lord himself – he is challenging the members of the infant Church to get their priorities right and to seek for the presence of God rather than the praises of men: To be attuned to the values of the Kingdom of God rather than worldly ambition; to seek the things that matter and to let go of things that hinder our growth; to recognize the difference between the transient things of this world and the promise of eternal life.
Last week we heard Jesus predicting his own death and the disciples struggled to understand; the Messiah suffering and dying – how could that have anything to do with greatness? In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks quite plainly about rejection and suffering and they still don’t get it – in fact, they excluded Jesus from their discussion as they argued about who was the greatest!
Speaking on this Gospel reading on this very same day 39 year ago, Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who saw for himself what the lure of greatness can do to dehumanize when exploited, nevertheless, urged his listeners to be great and to seek true greatness, but only because they had understood the lesson that Jesus had taught his disciples. He said this: “In Christ… three dimensions of truly great people are revealed. Only great people will fulfill the following three dimensions: First, justice that is proven through persecution; Second, service animated by love; Third, a transcendence that identifies the weakest and the humblest with God.” 2)
“Take up your Cross and follow me,” said Jesus in our Gospel last week, and he set the example like ‘a lamb led to the slaughter’. The Passion narrative is a confrontation between good and evil; truth and lies; justice and oppression. Jesus is even dressed in a scarlet robe and given a crown of thorns and a scepter – a parody of worldly greatness. But it was not Jesus who was ultimately ridiculed but the powers of this world. “Justice that is proven through persecution.” When the disciples argued about greatness, Jesus challenged them to think the opposite: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” An example he would put into practice by washing their feet at the Last Supper and then stretching out his arms of love on the cross in order to draw all people to himself: “service animated by love.” And then there is the little child; just as there was the tax collector, the leper, the woman with the bad reputation, and the thief on the cross – all representative of those who were nothing and yet who were touched by Jesus, God’s own Son: “a transcendence that identifies the weakest and the humblest with God.”
My friends, this Gospel passage has everything to do with our annual appeal because it sets the tone for the reason why we give. I have said this before, we give of our means to the Church because it is our responsibility to God – a gift to God, not just to an institution. The letter of James says, “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” Join with me in my prayer to the Lord that he will give us what we need for our Church and our Choir School because we want to exhibit the kind of greatness that changes peoples’ lives; that makes a real difference; that is outward looking and not self-justifying.
When I first came here I saw words like ‘glorious’ describing our building and its music tradition; if what we have is truly that great then there is a consequence to that greatness. (The price of greatness is responsibility). Isn’t that why our forebears built this glorious church so that others would be moved to faith? Isn’t that why Noble came all the way from Yorkshire to open a school that would not just create great music but change children’s lives? Is this not the reason why you and I are here today? To be changed; to be welcomed; to be made clean; to be fed; to give from the poverty of our nature to the Prince of Peace who even now is stretching out his arms of love to those who have nothing in our world and, amazingly, to you and to me. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:8b-10)
Each year we tell you that we are spending too much from our endowment but maybe I have ‘been asking wrongly’. Perhaps what I should be saying is, “Isn’t it amazing what we have been doing with the treasure entrusted to us so far? Let’s do even more!” The theme of our 2019 appeal is very, very simple: Four simple words that some of you have reflected on over the last year. Come – Stay – Grow – Give. Those words are inspired by our mission statement; they are found in the Gospel story today. Jesus wants people to come to him, to stay with him, to grow with him and, therefore, to give to one another and to others.
Why do this? Because we love him and he has given to us or, as it says at the beginning of John’s Gospel: “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
1) Winston Churchill (2013). “Never Give In!: Winston Churchill’s Speeches”, p.292,
2) Sermon preached on Sunday, September 23, 1979 (The Romesco Trust)
