Sermon by Fr Peter Wolton at St George’s on Sunday 13 March 2016, Lent 5 – Passiontide

Sermon by Fr Peter Wolton at St George’s on Sunday 13 March 2016, Lent 5 – Passiontide

Hearing the opening verses today’s epistle from Paul’s letter to the Philippians I was reminded for some strange reason of the beginning of the song “Let a woman in your life” from the film My Fair Lady. As some of you will recall, Professor Higgin’s assessment of his own virtues is rather different to that of St. Paul.

I'm an ordinary man,
Who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance, 
to live exactly as he likes, and do precisely what he wants... 
An average man am I, of no eccentric whim, 
Who likes to live his life, free of strife, 
doing whatever he thinks is best, for him, 
Well... just an ordinary man... 

Then he adds:

Let a woman in your life I shall never let a woman in my life.

So what was it that triggered me to be reminded of Henry Higgins, who seems to be the antithesis of St Paul, Paul who lived his live anything free of strife?

It may have been the self-satisfied tone of the Professor, or his self-righteous manner, because at the start of the reading as Paul reels off his list of qualities and achievements, Paul does sound very self-satisfied.

Or perhaps it is the knowledge that Higgin’s life was going to be turned upside down by Eliza Doolittle, or that much of what he had thought was important, rather like St. Paul, he would come to reject as being without value.

We have today a fascinating insight into Paul's background, listing four credentials received by birth, circumcision, membership of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin (who we recall were the only one of the 12 tribes to remain faithful to Judah and the house of David after the death of Solomon) and also a Hebrew, which meant he spoke in, read and prayed in Hebrew as opposed to many the Jewish diaspora, who only spoke Greek.

Then Paul lists three achievements.

He’s a Pharisee, of which there were about 6,000. They guarded national traditions against pagan and secular trends. They stressed a conservative and accurate approach to the Torah the Jewish law with its 613 commandments. The word Pharisee derives from the Hebrew for “separated” “The separated one.” Second Paul had achieved righteousness, or so he had thought by obeying the letter of the law and third, he was zealous for Judaism, persecuting the church.

And then he goes on to describe, using financial language, that of book keeping, of debits and credits, which tells us that he, a tent maker had an understanding of business, that all the gifts from birth and achievements were written off once he had come to know Christ. The language translates “written down to zero.” The value ascribed to them by Paul was zero and not only that, having discovered the gift of Christ, those achievements were not only valueless, but rubbish.

It is not an accident that we read this in Lent. We embrace life and enjoy the many joys it provides and that is good, but we also need to remind ourselves of what is really important and how we who have received the gift of knowledge of Christ should life our lives. That is one of the reasons why we have our “Why me?” series in Lent, because it allows us to reflect and share what it means to have Christ guiding our lives.

Paul the Pharisee having met Christ, came to understand that the way of narrow national exclusiveness is not the one that God has chosen in Christ. He reminded the Galatians that “in Abraham, all nations shall find blessing.”

As Christians, we need to be of the world; it is worrying that the Church can often be seen as “the separated one.” Let us embrace the world joyfully, strengthened by our faith.

Let me now leave today’s epistle and turn to the Gospel which does not do the debits and credits of the epistle but does contain contrasting personalities.

We have the devotion of Mary, as she breaks the casket of rich nard over Jesus’ feet, and the cynicism of Judas, who says it would have been better if she had sold the oil and given the money to the poor.

There is so much that can be discussed about this story. It seems that both Mary and Judas have sense of foreboding but their reaction both within and without is very different. I will just focus on Judas. He is becoming more and more convinced that Jesus’ statements mean that he is going to let down his followers badly in Jerusalem. The Lord is not going to put up a fight or be the Messiah in the form that Judas and many had hoped. The time Judas had given to Jesus was going to be wasted and when the curtain fell, Judas was going to be on the wrong side of it unless he took action.

It seems to me that there is much of the pre Christian Paul in Judas, who was the keeper of the purse, and may or may not have properly understood debits or credits; perhaps he was a fraudulent accountant.

The tragedy for Judas is that he failed to endure. He dipped out at the last moment, or to use a Pauline analogy, “in the home straight” just as everything was going to become clear. So he had the worst of both worlds. By handing over Jesus to the authorities he would not come to know Jesus in the way that St. Paul would and he lost everything in harrowing circumstances, taking his own life.

It is sometimes all too easy to see life in the form of building up credits. St. Paul reminds us is that however sizeable the credit, nothing can compare with the gift of faith in Jesus Christ.

I’ll end shortly and before doing so I’d like to finish with a quote from Martyn Percy, who is Dean of Christ Church, Oxford

“The endurance we are asked to practise is not supposed to be about rationing our resources and energy: ‘My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back’ says the writer of Hebrews. So, we should not be allowed to blunt the energy and enthusiasm that flow from living the gospel. To be sure, orderliness and calculation have their place, but this should not be allowed to control and marginalize our passion for the gospel, because true religion, of course, is about extremes: extreme love, extreme sacrifice, and extreme selflessness that go beyond reason.

Religion in moderation is, arguably, a contradiction in terms. It should offend, cajole, probe and interrogate. One might say that a faith that does not get up your nose sometimes is hardly worth the candle. Endurance is crucial, but equally, don’t hold back from proclaiming God’s love.”

As we leave here, let us not be self-satisfied like Henry Higgins, let us not shrink back, let us not be separated. Let us embrace the world and give thanks for the knowledge of Christ.