I wonder what you were doing in the early hours of Friday morning about twenty to one? We were out aurora searching. It turned out late Thursday night and early Friday morning we didn’t need to book expensive cruises round Norway to see it, we just needed to drive to Dallowgill and park by the chapel. There was an amazing mixture of green and red and apart from the wind absolute peace and silence. The world at twenty to one on Friday morning was still and calm and problemless. Rather like Robert Browning’s Pippa Passes: The year's at the spring and day's at the morn;Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing;The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven— All's right with the world!
But then we come home and find all’s not right with the world.
I began writing this sermon a few hours before our aurora hunt.
I was sitting waiting for a talk in the Crown Hotel in Harrogate which is hosting the annual Harrogate Literature Festival at the moment. I relax by watching and reading about politics and social history. So I was waiting to listen to one of our former Prime Ministers.
I wonder if you got a chance to meet a Prime Minister living or dead who it would be? Churchill? Liz Truss?!?! My Dad worshipped Harold Wilson. I’m reading a book about Wilson at the moment. Anyway I was waiting for Theresa May. She was talking about leadership and the abuse of power and a plea for all of us to return to serving and being responsible for each other.
I often watch the news on catch up quite late at night and the other night with a mixture of Israel and Gaza and the Lebanon and Syria and Yemen and Iran and hurricanes in the United States it was almost too much to watch. We need to pray for all those in leadership who have a responsibility to lead with integrity and compassion and not for their own end. Sadly this doesn’t happen in some places and it leads to where much of the world finds itself today. We cry peace peace but there is no peace. We are tired of war and negativity and we need a different narrative. The Old Testament passage for this Sunday is part of Amos prophecy to a people going off the rails. He longs for justice in the gate, he longs for good spiritual leadership out of the shrine at Bethel, he warns of an abyss. They hate the one who rebukes in the gate: Amos told us the cause of coming judgment – the terrible way that the people of Israel treated one another, especially how the strong took advantage of the weak. The weak had no voice in the gate and were robbed by oppressive taxes. The rich took advantage with bribes so they could drive the poor from justice.
The gate was the law court in ancient cities. Israel’s courts were so corrupt that they silenced the poor and righteous. The effect of this culture of injustice was that the prudent keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time – godly and righteous people did not speak out either fearing retribution or knowing it would do no good.
“Judicial decisions for each community were taken at the gate of the city, where the heads of families and other elders assembled to hear witnesses, arbitrate disputes, decide controversies and generally dispense justice. The space on the inner side of the gate together with rooms or alcoves in the gate area itself were used as courtrooms.”
Though you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell in them: Amos tells us God’s curse for Israel’s wickedness. Though the wicked in Israel gained fancy houses and vineyards from their oppression of the poor and railroading of justice, the gains were only temporary. God would evict them from their dishonestly gained houses and vineyards. Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the Lord God of hosts will be with you: Amos proclaimed God’s cure for Israel’s sin. They must begin to simply seek good and not evil. They must transform their corrupt courts and establish justice in the gate. Amos was talking to God’s people who were immersed in the law and the law included how you treat other people. Did you hear Tim Walz have a swipe at Donald Trump having some God bless America Bibles produced and outsourcing their production to China? “We just found out his Trump-branded Bibles—yeah, they’re printed in China,” Walz said at a Michigan rally. “This dude even outsourced God to China!”The Minnesota governor then feigned pity on Trump and offered to be “generous.” He said, “I don’t blame him. He didn’t notice the ‘made in China’ sticker, ’cause they put it inside, a place he’s never looked: in the Bible.”
Don’t you just love an American election? Maybe though we just want a peaceful aurora world every night. We cry to God. What shall we do?
I was struck by the Message translation of part of Psalm 119 in our prayer time at Allhallowgate on Wednesday.
I’m homesick—longing for your salvation;
I’m waiting for your word of hope.
My eyes grow heavy watching for some sign of your promise;
how long must I wait for your comfort?
There’s smoke in my eyes—they burn and water,
but I keep a steady gaze on the instructions you post.
How long do I have to put up with all this?People are searching for that aurora world. Let’s look at a rich young man. He says “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
I love this from the Church of Scotland worship material. “Imagine that one Sunday morning, three new people come to in to your church. If your church is anything like ours, then I imagine that there will excitement at seeing new people come. One of these three new arrivals is a wealthy young man with leadership experience, and a deep concern for eternal life. The second person is a lady with a bad reputation, whom people choose to avoid. The third person is called Zacchaeus. He works in finance, and the rumour is that he is crooked. You barely notice him coming in – he doesn't stand out in a crowd – and of course he immediately starts climbing; up to the balcony. Of these three people, which is the one that you would be most pleased to see in your church?
I imagine, being honest, that many of us would be pleased to see the keen, religious, wealthy young man. We may already be thinking about when to approach him to become an elder, and the healthy effect his tithing is going to have on the church finances. Yet when these three people met Jesus, it was the lady with the reputation who went away from her encounter with Jesus and became a successful evangelist in her own neighbourhood. It was Zacchaeus that left his encounter with Jesus as a changed man. However, in the whole New Testament, the wealthy young man is the only person described as feeling sad after meeting Jesus.”
As he describes the encounter Mark puts in a beautiful phrase (v21): ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him.’ No one else in this Gospel is described in such a powerful way. Jesus loved him: his heart went out to this young man. Why? Is it because he is moved by the urgency of the question? Is it because he knows the question can unlock a whole new future? Is it because he knows the demands of following will be too much? Jesus’ answer challenges the notion of ‘inheriting’ eternal life; perhaps because the questioner had inherited his fortune and status and could only see progress in those terms.
Jesus answer can be summed top in a series of verbs, of actions.
· go
· sell
· give
· come
· follow
‘Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ The issue is not so much about what the man possesses as what possesses him. He is a prisoner of his wealth and status and needs to see God’s plan for him in a different light.
Turning away is a rejection of God’s Kingdom and its promises: the rich, young, ruler had found the entry fee too demanding.
Traditionally wealth was seen as a sign of God’s blessing and, while the disciples had given up everything to follow Jesus, they were still shaken that their Rabbi would make such a shocking announcement: ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!’ or, as in some manuscripts, how hard for those who trust in riches.
It seems to me that this encounter is not about Jesus condemning wealth in itself, but Jesus putting his finger on the block for this man’s discipleship.
Then what shall we do? What must I do? How do I play my part in making the world better? We cannot friends change the world apart from praying and protesting but we can make a difference where we are. So while praying for leaders I remember my own responsibility - in the words of the prayer, let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
Why is it our human psyche needs an uplifting? We get excited about seeing the aurora or a sunrise or a sunset or the sea? Why is it we need times of celebration and festival? I’m doing the Harvest service at Wath chapel near Pateley Bridge on Sunday night and the place will be packed. Why is it we become so depressed about the world? Because we’ve forgotten we need a bigger vision and maybe God sends auroras and sunrises and sunsets and the sea and festivals to remind us of that, but also maybe Amos warning and the sad turning away of the young rich man are a message for us to look outwards and do what we can do in our part of the world to make it better. Theresa May on Thursday talked about taking off a mantle of selfishness and devoting ourselves unashamedly to duty and the service of others. Maybe that’s the key to it.
The prophets, like Amos, call us to a new way of being and living precisely because God knows, without any doubt, that this other way is possible for us, despite our histories of failure. When Amos says, “Seek good and not evil… establish justice in the gate,” the prophet is saying, “Yes, this option is actually available to you, and it always will be.”
Maybe then we’ll see not another aurora but treasure in heaven.
