The New Year’s Honours list gives due recognition to those who have excelled in sport, entertainment or public service, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. And yes, we are duly respectful of their honours and the public recognition of their success.
And yet, I wonder: we may admire success – but somehow failure seems to be more attractive. We can gloat that at least we did not fail that way. NOT US! But then there is also that delight is seeing someone come down, especially when that person has a public position. Not just come down to earth from whatever giddy heights of excellence they may have achieved, but into that place of public and ritual humiliation.
Look at the lurid reports of those accused of crimes – and the more graphic the better. ‘I may be a sinner but at least I am not a child abuser’ – says the fraudster. And the child abuser says, ‘I love children but at least I am not violent (at least, I don’t think so).’ And the robber: ‘At least I love my wife/partner and children.’ And so on and so on. There is always someone else whom we are free to despise, there is always someone whose lifestyle and choices are deemed to be worse than our own.
We may justify ourselves in our own minds, but in the eyes of the Lord? ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ (Romans 3:23); ‘There is none that does good, no not one.’ (Psalm 53:3). Isaiah compares our righteousness with filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6).
And this is the point. When comparing ourselves with one another, we will always place ourselves in the best light. But this is irrelevant. It is the comparison with the holiness and glory of God that matters and here we fall short: badly. Yes, when we ask God to show us where we fall short, then He will hear us and show us and lead us into that place of laying aside the things that hold us back. And this can of course be costly. But it leads us away from setting our own standards of righteousness and towards accepting His, even and especially when we do not meet them.
But the gospel message of Jesus is very simple. Mark is especially succinct: Repent and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:15). The call is to recognise the shortcomings in our own lives and then respond in faith to Jesus’ call to set them aside and receive His life as He gives it. And not just once but daily. Certainly the first time is critical for this is where we first receive that sense of His forgiveness but it never stops there. It is an ongoing aspect of life. It becomes part of who we are and where we are going. And if the sin is repeated then the repentance must be repeated as well.
This way, we also have some sympathy with the sinner. While in the public arena, the accusation is proof of guilt, and the trial is only a technicality before sentence is passed, in the sight of God since all have sinned then all are invited to repentance and all are welcomed into it when they do. More joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over all the others who need no repentance.
Now we do not need to feel smug when someone is caught out in crime or other unacceptable lifestyle or words or actions. We do not need to enjoy that schadenfreude when another is found wanting. In fact that kind of delight begins to feel sour, even revolting. There is that sense of disgust when we find a thrill of satisfaction that another person has been found out.
Perhaps we might look again at the ‘Comfortable Words’ of the older liturgies – ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ and ‘If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins.’
I know that Ash Wednesday is on 5 March, but writing this before the electoral meeting for a new bishop, this is also for us a new point of departure.
Every blessing,
Sydney Maitland.
Then shall the Presbyter also say,
Hear what comfortable words our. Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him.
COME unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. St. Matthew 11. 28.
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. St. John 3. 16.
Hear also what Saint Paul saith.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1. 15.
Hear also what Saint John saith.
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins. 1 St. John 2. 1, 2.
