Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 13 October 2024.
Jesus the High Priest: Romanian Church, Jerusalem (Source and full image)
• First Reading: Job 23: 1-9, 16-17 (If only I knew where to find Him, if only I could go to His dwelling!)
• Epistle: Hebrews 4: 12-16 (For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword)
• Gospel: Mark 10: 17-31 (The rich and the kingdom of God)
We live in an interesting world: in which most people are connected by trade and the internet, and where we know of each other’s lives and possibly lifestyles. This is a world where news and opinions and tastes are spread globally, and anyone with a telephone or a television is part of that worldwide community.
We relish the novelty of interesting music, dances, clothing, buildings and architecture, diets and special dishes at mealtimes.
But we still want them fed to us in a proper order.
We may want tea at breakfast but we do not really want a lecture on the mining, working, manufacture and distribution of the rare earth minerals that go into our toasters or coffee grinders.
We may want to interact with a public authority website but do not welcome its collapse into endless cycles which are impossible to resolve.
Variety and interest: Yes, but not when it results in chaos and confusion.
Now look at Job: bereft of all that he had but demanding justice before God. Indeed, demanding that God come before him or at least offer him a tribunal where he could protest his innocence – and demand explanation of what had happened to him.
And all he got for a long time were the accusations and the empty posturings of his friends but a heaven, firmly locked and silent before his pleas for justice.
And God never did answer Job’s questions. Not directly. He might have teased him when asking Job just where he was when God was laying the foundations of the world, but even when restored to health and prosperity, Job never received any real answer to what was behind his torments.
All he could do was, even in the face of his troubles and sorrows, hold to a world which was ordered in all aspects and trust despite all the opposing evidence that God would meet him with mercy.
But he held to that belief and despite it all, never let go.
But then there is the paradox of wealth facing the disciples as Jesus told a wealth young man to sell up and then follow Him as a disciple.
It would mean abandoning all the status and security of wealth. He would have no place in the community, not even a seat from which he could do good works and bring comfort to the poor and needy. That is, those good works that he chose to do.
Every kind of security and status would have to be abandoned. For him there would be no room for evasion or debate. But then this was the only instance when Jesus made this demand to one who was wealthy.
And Jesus was still supported by wealthy women, still able to enter the homes of community leaders and face down in debate the scribes, pharisees, lawyers and other religious leaders.
For some, wealth really is a stumbling block and to be free of having to guard and administer it is a real release. Think of St Francis of Assisi, who did just this. And there have been others ready to abandon all and to travel into strange and dangerous lands to spread the gospel message.
Part of the difficulty is that we spend far too much time looking at ourselves. Our homes and possessions; our opinions and debating points. Our sense of security and our place in the community.
Me! Me! Me! Me!
Hebrews says something different: Look at Jesus. This is the High Priest already in the heavens and praying for us before the Throne of Grace.
This is the One who has been tempted and yet came through without sin. This is the One who has bestowed on us the presence of the Holy Spirit to bring His actions and teaching to mind and who in the scriptures is able to probe our deepest thoughts and motives, our innermost secrets and fears.
It is not just that He is closer to us than our own thoughts, more intimate than our own breathing.
It is also that in the Holy Spirit, He comes to us with His personal life and experience, His own wisdom and His ability to see and perceive. To discern and give counsel.
Where Job thought he was facing a wall of silence and a pit or darkness, Jesus offers us His eyes and ears, His heart and mind. He may not give us what we want, as we want it. He may present us with a mystery to be pondered and savoured.
He may offer us an area in which we must love the Lord our God with the mind, allowing Him to set the agenda of life and to bring us those glimpses of His will as He decides rather than as we hope or expect or desire.
This is not the only area of self-emptying that He will lead us into but it is a real preparation for what may yet lie ahead. It is another dimension of discipleship.
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