The Hope Of Glory
Sermon
I'm not always convinced by those who claim not to worry about anything. I think it's a waste of energy to worry unnecessarily about trivial things, but am aware that few of us seem to have much control about the degree to which we worry. Maybe it's possible to learn techniques to diminish the tendency to worry, but I would think it's very difficult indeed to completely cease from worry.
So I do experience some difficulty with those who claim never to worry. Quite often, those people seem to avoid worrying about situations which are actually very serious, and about which perhaps they should be worrying.
For instance, it would be odd not to worry about serious illness in the family, or going bankrupt or facing a trial in court. A lack of worry under those circumstances could be construed as a lack of care, or as a lack of understanding, or as a refusal to face the situation. An unnatural lack of worry probably indicates not a whole person, but one who is perhaps quite dysfunctional. Ostriches probably never worry, but only because their heads are always stuck in the sand!
The problem with worry is not so much that we worry, but as Jesus pointed out in today's gospel reading, that we worry unduly and over situations which don't merit any anxiety. Thus we cause ourselves far more suffering than we need and perhaps far more suffering than we can really cope with. And when that happens, all that unnecessary worry becomes manifest in our own illnesses and stress.
The early church in Rome had something concrete to worry about. Already, at that very early stage in the history of the Christian Church, there were divisions among the members. The church, which met in individual houses since all the early churches were house churches, was a mixture of both Jews and Gentiles. For as long as anyone could remember and beyond, Jews and Gentiles had lived almost completely separate lives meeting only for trade or commerce, so this early Church of both Jews and Gentiles can't have been an easy mixture.
The Jews in the Church at Rome observed Jewish food laws, which the Gentiles ignored, and moreover, some converts had a dangerous tendency towards asceticism (Romans 14:2). Some new Christians were "weak in the faith", while others are described as "strong in the faith", and Paul discovered that many of the problems in Rome were similar to those faced in Corinth (1 Corinthians 8).
Because worship and the observation of faith are very close to the human heart, strong emotions are aroused by these issues, so the mixture of Jews and Gentiles coming from very different positions was inevitably explosive. At one point the disturbances became so violent that the Emperor Claudius ordered the expulsion of Jewish Christians from Rome in 49 AD, and hence Paul met up in Corinth with Prisca and Aquilla who had been expelled from Rome, and learned from them about the situation in Rome.
It seems almost unbelievable that within two decades of the time of Jesus, members of the Church could already be at each others' throats, and perhaps helps to put in perspective the later religious wars which have always dogged Christianity. And the situation in Rome can serve as both an encouragement and a warning to us today. An encouragement, because differences of opinion about worship and faith aren't a recent phenomenon but were there right from the beginning, and a warning because strongly held opinions about worship and faith so often result in disturbances which can easily spill over into ugliness and violence.
St Paul handles the situation in Rome by writing to those involved. He tries to draw them back together by spelling out the basics of the Christian faith and so encourages the new Church to move forward together in unity with each other. The letter to the Romans is considered by scholars to be the best exposition of Paul's theology that we have, and has been called by some "The Gospel according to Paul". His basic claim is that Christians are made right with God through the death of Jesus on the cross, and that the old Jewish law is therefore defunct. Jesus has superceded the law, so Christians don't have to "do" anything to be right with God, for Jesus has done it for them through his death and resurrection.
In Romans 8, Paul has been saying that just as he breathed life into Jesus after his crucifixion, so God breathes life into our dead bodies too by his Spirit and that we are therefore his heirs. In today's passage he goes on to say that we can't begin to imagine the glory waiting for us after death. We might not see it now, and indeed, some of us might be suffering right now, but that suffering will disappear in the twinkling of an eye when we see what God has planned for us.
Of course, we can't see it now, and may not even catch a glimpse of it, but we have been saved by Jesus for this very purpose - for untold glory after death. And that is our Christian hope and our Christian heritage - an amazing life after death.
For most of us most of the time, that hope might seem so remote as to not be worth a thought, but there are times when we're brought up short, because we're suddenly plunged into contact with our own mortality. Times like September 11th last year, when we all felt suddenly very vulnerable and mortal, and times when we hear of the death of a friend - perhaps prematurely - or experience the death of a family member.
We're all mortal and we'll all die sometime, but Christians need not fear that event, but rather anticipate it. And as we look towards that glory, we need to do what we can on earth right now to enable God's will to be done on earth, and for us all to move nearer to the glory we humans could have here, if we didn't constantly spoil it.
We need Christ to heal our divisions, to help us listen to and understand each other, to enable us to act towards each other out of love and not out of self-interest. And then, perhaps we can stop worrying and can begin to experience the glory of God's kingdom right here on earth in this church, as well as after death.
So I do experience some difficulty with those who claim never to worry. Quite often, those people seem to avoid worrying about situations which are actually very serious, and about which perhaps they should be worrying.
For instance, it would be odd not to worry about serious illness in the family, or going bankrupt or facing a trial in court. A lack of worry under those circumstances could be construed as a lack of care, or as a lack of understanding, or as a refusal to face the situation. An unnatural lack of worry probably indicates not a whole person, but one who is perhaps quite dysfunctional. Ostriches probably never worry, but only because their heads are always stuck in the sand!
The problem with worry is not so much that we worry, but as Jesus pointed out in today's gospel reading, that we worry unduly and over situations which don't merit any anxiety. Thus we cause ourselves far more suffering than we need and perhaps far more suffering than we can really cope with. And when that happens, all that unnecessary worry becomes manifest in our own illnesses and stress.
The early church in Rome had something concrete to worry about. Already, at that very early stage in the history of the Christian Church, there were divisions among the members. The church, which met in individual houses since all the early churches were house churches, was a mixture of both Jews and Gentiles. For as long as anyone could remember and beyond, Jews and Gentiles had lived almost completely separate lives meeting only for trade or commerce, so this early Church of both Jews and Gentiles can't have been an easy mixture.
The Jews in the Church at Rome observed Jewish food laws, which the Gentiles ignored, and moreover, some converts had a dangerous tendency towards asceticism (Romans 14:2). Some new Christians were "weak in the faith", while others are described as "strong in the faith", and Paul discovered that many of the problems in Rome were similar to those faced in Corinth (1 Corinthians 8).
Because worship and the observation of faith are very close to the human heart, strong emotions are aroused by these issues, so the mixture of Jews and Gentiles coming from very different positions was inevitably explosive. At one point the disturbances became so violent that the Emperor Claudius ordered the expulsion of Jewish Christians from Rome in 49 AD, and hence Paul met up in Corinth with Prisca and Aquilla who had been expelled from Rome, and learned from them about the situation in Rome.
It seems almost unbelievable that within two decades of the time of Jesus, members of the Church could already be at each others' throats, and perhaps helps to put in perspective the later religious wars which have always dogged Christianity. And the situation in Rome can serve as both an encouragement and a warning to us today. An encouragement, because differences of opinion about worship and faith aren't a recent phenomenon but were there right from the beginning, and a warning because strongly held opinions about worship and faith so often result in disturbances which can easily spill over into ugliness and violence.
St Paul handles the situation in Rome by writing to those involved. He tries to draw them back together by spelling out the basics of the Christian faith and so encourages the new Church to move forward together in unity with each other. The letter to the Romans is considered by scholars to be the best exposition of Paul's theology that we have, and has been called by some "The Gospel according to Paul". His basic claim is that Christians are made right with God through the death of Jesus on the cross, and that the old Jewish law is therefore defunct. Jesus has superceded the law, so Christians don't have to "do" anything to be right with God, for Jesus has done it for them through his death and resurrection.
In Romans 8, Paul has been saying that just as he breathed life into Jesus after his crucifixion, so God breathes life into our dead bodies too by his Spirit and that we are therefore his heirs. In today's passage he goes on to say that we can't begin to imagine the glory waiting for us after death. We might not see it now, and indeed, some of us might be suffering right now, but that suffering will disappear in the twinkling of an eye when we see what God has planned for us.
Of course, we can't see it now, and may not even catch a glimpse of it, but we have been saved by Jesus for this very purpose - for untold glory after death. And that is our Christian hope and our Christian heritage - an amazing life after death.
For most of us most of the time, that hope might seem so remote as to not be worth a thought, but there are times when we're brought up short, because we're suddenly plunged into contact with our own mortality. Times like September 11th last year, when we all felt suddenly very vulnerable and mortal, and times when we hear of the death of a friend - perhaps prematurely - or experience the death of a family member.
We're all mortal and we'll all die sometime, but Christians need not fear that event, but rather anticipate it. And as we look towards that glory, we need to do what we can on earth right now to enable God's will to be done on earth, and for us all to move nearer to the glory we humans could have here, if we didn't constantly spoil it.
We need Christ to heal our divisions, to help us listen to and understand each other, to enable us to act towards each other out of love and not out of self-interest. And then, perhaps we can stop worrying and can begin to experience the glory of God's kingdom right here on earth in this church, as well as after death.
