FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM

SERMON - FOR ST PETER’S DAY

Ezekiel 3:22-26   Romans 6:12-end    Matthew 16:13-19

I wonder what you are addicted to? We all have addictions. I’m addicted to cats, chocolate & cricket - and that’s just for starters! But we all are addicted to sin ( the dark angels of our nature) – we are SLAVES to sin, St Paul writes. Sin has power over you, me, all of us.

Now usually, an addiction can be cured – or at least controlled – by therapy or medication. But the only remedy for addiction to sin is the grace & love of God.

And for me the ‘great & mighty wonder’ is that God became man - taking the form of a slave, in solidarity with our sinful selves to liberate us from slavery to sin. Jesus Christ. It’s all there in Philippians 2:5-9. The Greek word is ‘doulos’, which means slave, or servant. So we read in John 13:2-10 of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. That was the duty of a slave.  Jesus did this to show that God is totally there FOR people – and remains so today, for us, for everyone.

Slavery is a terrible thing. It has been a poison infecting humanity since as far back as we can remember. It was taken for granted in the Persian & Roman Empires. It was assumed by the Constitution of the USA – that stirring manifesto of liberty & equality! Our British Empire & ‘civilization’ was built on it. As also was the ancient empire of Egypt….

Which is where it all starts to get exciting! Because we now come to a remarkable event about 3 and a half thousand years ago, the turning-point at the heart of our Jewish-Christian faith – th LIBERATION by Moses of the Hebrew/Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. The EXODUS, the ‘going out from’ Egypt. Now the Hebrews not only came to see the hand of God in this. They saw this freedom as God’s GIFT – the gift of freedom:  but they saw also that this gift entails RESPONSIBILITY. God makes it clear beyond doubt: “As I have done this for you, so I now call you to liberate the poorest of this land” ---> of this earth – those suffering injustice under the heel of the overlord, the dispossessed, the stranger & the refugee whom we are to welcome into our community. God repeats this obligation time and again through the prophets, right through to Jesus, and so to us today. Here in Settle are refugees and those who seek welcome, and a home. Here in Britain there are still slaves.

So it is that this important journey – literally one of life & death – brings us to our CHRISTIAN FAITH - and nearer to St Peter. We arrive at the Second Exodus. We see that by way of God’s work in Jesus Christ, we have become liberated from slavery to sin, we are freed from all that deals the cards of death rather than life. God is at-one with us (and indeed all creation) in the  life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The requirement to act on this – to make it real in today’s world – does not come cheap. It calls for commitment and risk. But this liberation is also the gift and promise of new community life in all its fullness!

Today I mark the 50^th anniversary to the day – Sunday 28 June 1970, St Peter’s Day – of my ordination as deacon in Worcester Cathedral by Bishop Mervyn Charles-Edwards. ‘Deacon’ is another word meaning servant – All of us in the church, lay people, priests, bishops…the Pope…remain servants, always for other people and their needs. Unlike slavery, service – ministry – is truly reciprocal, a mutual 2-way thing .

So – PETER. Jesus calls a fisherman, Simon son of Jonah, to spearhead his motley mixed-bag group of disciples – a very ordinary, vulnerable, down-to-earth bunch of sinners – it could be you and I … well, it is, now!. Peter was a nick-name which Jesus – slightly tongue-in-cheek but with great intent - gave to Peter. ‘You are my ‘petros’, my rock, on whom I will build my church’, my new community’ says Jesus. The Greek N.T. word translated as ‘church’ actually means ‘people called out’, together in community. COMMUNITY, YOU SEE, IS AT THE HEART OF IT. As the socially crammed, not distanced, Bournemouth beach sadly showed 3 days ago, our collective behaviour can be very different from our individual behaviour, for better and worse. But God calls us, the Christian community, to set a clear example as a responsible, merciful community open to all. So Pentecost, the beginning of the church, was the public demonstration of a new movement of the will in face of a Jewish religion stale and tired under the heel of oppression.

Was Peter promising material to be the leader of a world-changing new movement? Well no, not really. Fickle, unreliable, impulsive, hot-headed…doesn’t think before he speaks.. repeatedly gets it wrong! And yet…. Jesus sees deep-down into Simon – spies the potential – takes a huge risk – just as God does with you and me….

Indeed, as the ministry of Jesus pans out, things don’t look at all promising in Simon Peter’s case… At the Transfiguration he just doesn’t get it. He tries to walk on the water, and fails embarrassingly! And here in today’s Gospel he acclaims Jesus as Christ/Messiah oh so full-heartedly……But then what happens? After Jesus’ arrest, when all seems lost, Peter denies Jesus 3 times, most emphatically!

JESUS, THOUGH, KEEPS FAITH WITH PETER, through torture, crucifixion and beyond – God’s huge risk will be justified! So at the very end of John’s Gospel, we see Jesus affirming Peter 3 times as he confirms Peter’s calling, and ours, to practical service – the requirement that we serve one another with utmost care and compassion – that we be deacons. “FEED MY SHEEP”.

Peter, then, comes to lead this new Spirit-filled community – the Church. He finishes up in Rome. At the end, he is bound hand & foot and taken where he does not want to go (cf Ezekiel 3) – to crucifixion.

That could be it – except for one final, tantalising but maybe very significant question…. Were there women apostles too? Perhaps Mary of Magdala?  Later on, in Romans 16, v.7, Paul greets Andronicus and Junias ‘numbered among the apostles’. But according to the Greek original, Junias is more likely to be JUNIA. This would mean that, as well as quite possibly Mary Magdalene, here is another lady we should number among the apostles! Quite a thought…..

AMEN

Rev Paul Fisher