These days following Christmas Day have some sharp edges to
them. If we are tempted to think of
Christmas as a time of saccharin sweetness and one of overindulgence then these
days bring the hangover to end all hangovers; they bring us up short very
quickly. The day we call Boxing Day is
also known as the Feast of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. He brings with him the reminder that following
this newborn baby lying in the manger can be costly, often is. It brings us into conflict with vested
interests, those who don’t like the boat being rocked and certainly don’t like
their power being challenged. Any
preacher who ventures into the realm of political or social comment will
quickly learn that some will tell us to keep politics out of the pulpit. These days that follow tell us that it
belongs firmly in the pulpit and in the pew and outside it. Faith touches the whole of our life or it
touches nothing at all.
Then on Friday we were given St John, the apostle and either
the author of the Fourth Gospel or one on whom much of its information
rests. This is the Gospel that tells us
the eternal Word, the Wisdom and very purpose of God, chose to be enfleshed
among us, to be incarnate. Why did he do
this, well our epistle told us it was that through doing this he became subject
to death so that he can destroy death (Hebrews 2:10-end). As fans of the comedian Reginald D Hunter
will know, if you want to defeat something you have to become it, so Christ
takes on our humanity so that he can be subject to our mortality, die and rise;
he can become death in order to destroy it.
It’s a profound piece of motivational thinking. By entering deeply into the very thing that
oppresses us we can destroy its fear and therefore its hold on us.
This is inspirational leadership. The leaders who inspire us most are those who
are grounded in the reality of the situation they seek to manage. Bishops who have been parish priests tick a
box for me which those who haven’t just fail to master. At a profound level they get it: the
pressures, the struggles and the all comsuming commitment required. Politicians who have done a day job, and not
just been political researchers and the like, command a respect which the
others fail to achieve. One of the
problems with the House of Commons at the moment is too many of those in it
haven’t done what I’d call a proper job.
The same goes for clergy too. The
ones who have a former career tend to command a respect that those who haven’t
don’t for its rooting and ground in the daily grind. In the prison service trainee governors have
to spend time as an officer on the wings first.
They have to have walked the landings to be able to understand what the
real issues are and to gain the respect of the officers. The same goes for Education. How can you lead schools if you haven’t
taught in a class and preferably in one of the more challenging places?
Jesus is not a remote vision of God, but one among us,
sharing our joys and griefs, the trials and achievements we all have. And in this the final trial we all face, that
of death itself. This is the God who not
only understands but shows he does. That
matters when the chips are down and we are struggling with the rawest
experiences and emotions we can face.
Our gospel reading today, was also the one for yesterday
when we recalled the brutal murder of the Holy Innocents (Matthew
2:13-end). Kind Herod, worried
for his grip on power and despotic control, ordered the murder of all of the
baby boys in the Bethlehem area under the age of 2. I don’t know how many children that was, but
we count each child as special and to every parent each child is
irreplaceable. So this is a dark day in
our calendar. But it is a day that
provides a space for parents who have lost children to find their story in the
Christmas story. It means that they are
not shut out from these celebrations, even if partying is furthest from their
minds. It is also a day for everyone who
has been abused as a child, and those who as adults continue to struggle with
this. As a senior police officer dealing
with the Jimmy Savile cases said, there is no such thing as historic
abuse. For those who endured it the
nightmare is always with them and it haunts.
For Joseph, he knew that only when the threat had
disappeared, when Herod was dead, would it be safe to return from Egypt. Even then he found that he couldn’t go back
to where they had previously been, he had to settle anew in a place some
distance away. Psychological distance
can be important for those who have endured significant trauma. If we are going to rebuild we have to feel
safe to do it. Egypt was an ironic place
to go for safety because it was there that Pharaoh had tried to kill all the
Hebrew boys leading to Moses being hidden by his mother in the reeds. It shows that places do not remain dangerous
for ever. Previous places of danger can
become a place of safety, of asylum.
Today is also the day we remember the murder of Archbishop
Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Another king, Heny II, out to remove political opponents, saw violence
as the solution to his problems. Whether
he intended it or it was overambitious barons, with their own axes to grind,
who went too far, we will probably never know.
Becket has local connections here in Peterborough because the roof of
our Cathedral is probably modeled on what Canterbury Cathedral would have
looked like at the time. Some of his
relics where also displayed here which is why we have the Becket Chapel.
Becket is a strange one.
He brings the compromised position of church power and privilege. He died for separate courts to deal with
misbehaving clergy. It was a view that
the church needed its political independence to be able to do its job –
prophetic and pastoral. On one level I
like the Royal Navy chaplaincy model of clergy taking the rank of the person
they are talking to. That enables a
conversation of equals and that assists honesty because no one has to keep
face. It requires a high degree of confidentiality
and while not tested by the courts, it is recognized as a good thing. But everyone needs to be accountable and we
have seen far too many cases where protection of the vulnerable has been given
second place to protection of the institution, which is really a false
protection because it is no protection at all when the truth comes out. True protection lies in behaving
appropriately in the first place and with a transparency of justice.
Becket though, stands for the need to speak the
uncomfortable truths to power. Hugh of
Lincoln, depicted in our windows and reredos with his pet swan, who consecrated
the cathedral 900 years ago, was a contemporary, and he seems to have been
better at it – at least he kept his head, but may have benefited from the
furore that erupted after Becket’s murder, and pushing his luck accordingly.
Sermon preached in Peterborough Parish Church, Sunday 29th December 2013
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