Sermon on the Fifth Sunday of Lent - Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters

I regard everything as loss, because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I

may gain Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Please do be seated. During Lent group this week we had a lively debate about the

meaning of the resurrection in our daily lives as Christians.

We began with Rowan Williams teaching that when Jesus rose again he began a new age of

human reality. This is a confronting thought, but not one that's easy to picture. We're used to

thinking of history in terms of periods, like the Tudor or the Victorian periods, but we don't

often think of ourselves as living in an age defined by anything really beyond politics.

But the Bible shows us that we do. The Old and the New Testaments point to defining moments

in human history, each defined by the relationship between God and humanity. In the Old

Testament, humanity was defined by the covenant God made with Abraham.

Through that covenant, Abraham and his descendants were blessed. And though it was a focus

on a particular people, the covenant had a universal scope, for the promise came, in you all the

families of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 12 verse 3. Israel descended from that covenant.

Genesis 12:3

Jacob, Abraham's grandson, who was renamed Israel. And from him came the twelve tribes, as

we heard in our reading from Philippians this morning, one of them being the tribe of

Benjamin. Israel was called to be a priestly people on behalf of all humanity, living in the

promise of a future blessing that would spread out to the ends of the earth.

And so the Abrahamic covenant was the beginning phase of human existence. The beginning of

our relationship with God. One people chosen to speak on behalf of all people, and a promise

that all people would be brought into the fold.

In the Abrahamic covenant, the relationship between God and humanity was renewed and

secured by the sacrifice of crops, of money, of livestock. The blood of lambs and goats, as

Hebrews refers to, was given not just because it was costly to the owners, but rather so that the

greater sacrifice, the sacrifice of the second phase of human existence, could be foreshadowed.

A sacrifice of blood.

And it is that sacrifice of blood which creates the new covenant, the New Testament, the

sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb of God. In this new covenant, New Testament, Hebrews

explains to us that a daily sacrifice of animals was no longer needed. No longer did sacrifice

extend to just a select group of people, the people of Israel and the sacrifice of the temple.

In the new covenant, the blood of Jesus was given, once for all humanity on the cross. And in

the resurrection, the new covenant reached its climax, as the death of God gave way to his life,

not just for himself, but for everyone. In Jesus, all the families of the earth are blessed.

All are welcome. And so, the old covenant gave way to the new. The final promise was fulfilled.

The Abrahamic covenant, which extended to one people, was opened up into Jesus's covenant

with all people. As Jesus himself said to the disciples, go out therefore and make disciples of all

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the

perfect human being who represents all human beings.

And in him, we die to sin, the sin that keeps us back from God. And in him, we rise to new life.

And so, we are defined by a new relationship with God.

That resurrection fulfills the final promise. And so, the totality of human existence is realized. Of

course, we're caught between the beginning of one age and its fulfillment.

Jesus completed the work of the new age in the resurrection, but we await its full arrival. We are

not yet perfect, as he is perfect. But he told us that it is coming.

The victory has been fought on the cross and won at the resurrection. And so, now we live in an

age which has started, whose end is decided. Although we do not know exactly when the end

will come or what it will be like when it does.

This feels very strange. As I say, we're not used to talking in this language, but every week we

proclaim this truth in the words of the Creed. We say, he will come again in glory to judge the

living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

What we're saying is, we live in the final phase of human existence. One started by the

resurrection, and one which will end with the judgment. And after that, his kingdom will have

no end.

There is no further phase to come. This is it. We are now living, looking forward to the

fulfillment of all things, Jesus's return and his coming kingdom.

Returning to our Lent group, we considered what our response to this really major piece of

news should be. If, in short, the resurrection began a new reality, then that means enormous

consequences, not just for us, but for all humanity. Because what we're claiming as Christians,

with that simple word in the Creed, that simple line, is that we are claiming an appeal to an

objective truth, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

Rowan Williams reminded us the resurrection is not an isolated historical event. It was the

event that completed all of Jesus's work towards salvation. It was the turning point in human

history.

Everything before it looked to it. Everything after it must be understood in light of it. And so no

one is unaffected by it, regardless of belief.

We're claiming, too, that we live in an age which affects not just us in this room or in any

church, but all people. And we're claiming that that age will end with Christ's return in

judgment. When he comes, that judgment will come down to whether we have allowed our sins

to be subsumed into his death, and whether we are ready to share his risen life.

And we don't know when this moment will be. As Jesus said in Matthew 24, 36, but about that

day and hour no one knows. Neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.

So here is the question. Does that constitute an emergency? If we are living in the final phase of

human existence, if the end of that phase will come with the day of judgment, if on the day of

judgment the question will be asked, have you responded to the most important event in

human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is that an emergency? Is it an emergency for us

and is it emergency for the people who have not yet realized that truth? Well certainly the early

church thought so. The Apostles, including St. Paul, acted with remarkable energy after the

resurrection, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ across the Roman Empire in just a few

decades.

They established communities, taught the essentials of faith, and moved quickly to the next

place. Their urgency is evident not just in their travels but in their letters, writing to sustain

fledgling communities from afar. They risked imprisonment, persecution, beatings, even death.

They believed that their mission was essential, it was worth every risk, and so they travelled at

breakneck speed across the known world, spreading their message, defiant of everything that

stood in their way. Of course some suggest that the Apostles acted in this way because they

expected Jesus's return within their lifetimes. We can understand why.

For example in Matthew 16 verse 28 Jesus said, there are some standing here who will not taste

Matthew 16:28

death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. But the church very quickly came

to understand that Jesus referred to the inauguration of God's kingdom in the resurrection.

Jesus was not coming immediately but his kingdom was coming soon.

And so again are we in a period of urgency? The most important thing in human history has

happened. We need to respond, and we need to respond by a date we do not know. Perhaps it

is an emergency but as our Lent group observed, most of us can't live as the Apostles lived.

Life for all of us carries responsibilities, work, family, community. We can't just drop everything

and travel across the known world shouting about Jesus as St. Paul did. But actually the fact

that St. Paul established communities suggests that even he didn't expect all Christians to act

like he did.

He expected the believers that he created in each new place, including Philippi where he wrote

to in our reading from the New Testament, he expected those believers to stay where they

were, to live out their faith in their community, to maintain their worship, and to care for the

vulnerable. And so this brings us to our Gospel reading and to Mary of Bethany. Because Mary

showed us another way of living urgently.

She didn't travel at breakneck speed or shout about her faith, but she lived out urgency in

giving. Paula Gooder has suggested that the ointment that Mary used to anoint Jesus was likely

worth a year or more's wages. This wasn't something that a person would just happen to have

lying around.

It was a very precious item, probably the most precious she owned. Maybe it was given to her

as a dowry, maybe a gift, maybe she'd held on to it for very many years. Perfume of this sort of

quality would have been stored in a completely sealed clay jar because it would have spoiled

quite quickly.

And so for Mary to use it, she had to break open the jar. This wasn't a case that she could

quickly unstopper it, pour a bit on Jesus's feet, and then put the stopper back on and save the

rest for herself. No, she had to break open the jar, use this most expensive thing that she

owned.

And so hers was an act that was costly, not just in terms of the material cost, but rich in

emotional value. In urgency, she gave the most precious thing she had to Jesus because she

knew that the moment demanded it. Think about that, her most precious possession, so

precious that she hadn't even used it on herself, and yet she poured it out for Jesus without a

moment's hesitation.

In doing so, she lived up to the Jewish tradition of worship, where fragrant offerings were given

exclusively to God. In Exodus chapter 30, there is a description of how incense ought to be

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

made for the tabernacle. It says, it shall be for you, holy to the Lord.

You shall not make it for yourselves. So precious was this fragrance that it couldn't be used for

personal enjoyment, but only for divine worship. Mary lived that reality.

She took her most precious thing and she set it aside for God, because she recognized who he

was, the Son of God. And so she offered in urgency everything that she had. Her act teaches us

something vital.

She acted in urgency, not in frantic activity, but in lavish, wholehearted worship. She saw who

Jesus was and she recognized it by giving of her best, everything that she had. And so the

question then for us, who cannot live as St. Paul lived, traveling to the ends of the earth,

shouting about the gospel, is how do we live urgently? How do we live in response to the reality

of the resurrection? How do we live with the extravagant worship that Mary offered at Bethany?

Do we recognize that we are worshipping right now the God who became a human being, who

died for us and rose again, who created a new reality for us and for the people that we love?

Can we ever give enough? Can we ever worship enough in response to what he has done for

us? The way that we give is the life of the church.

Mary's gift was personal and costly, but it became part of the wider witness of the gospel. Our

gifts too are given to Christ when we give them to his body, the church. You don't have time to

pray morning prayer every morning, but Laurie and Avril and I can.

You can't sing God's praises in the choir, but Mike and Tom and Valsa can. You might not have

experience to go out and use music to reach young people in the community, but Patrick and

Cosima do. You might not have capacity for church spreadsheets or a weekly toddler group or

church building faculties or arranging flowers or holding funerals or visiting people in hospital,

but Lynn and Jackie and Elaine and Helen and Sue all have you covered.

And so, to so many others who in this community give what they have in worship, the church

exists in order to facilitate urgent giving in every community so that always and everywhere

praise and worship is being offered to God our Father and in thanks to Jesus his Son. If you are

part of the body of Christ, then you are part of its mission. You are me and I am you, and

together we give more than either of us could give alone.

So, should our response be urgent to the message of the resurrection? Absolutely. Christ is

returning and we must be ready, but the urgency doesn't rest on your shoulders. It rests on our

shoulders.

And so your final question as we approach Holy Week is this. How do you give urgently as part

of this community? What gifts do you give so that this body can worship at all times and in all

places as it is called to do? How do you work so that other people can live their lives just as they

work so that you can live yours? Because together we give the most costly thing we have.

Together we spread the message to the ends of the earth.

Together we are St. Paul. Together we are Mary of Bethany. Together we worship God Almighty

always and everywhere as urgently as he requires.

Amen.