"MY FELLOW COMFORTERS"
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, November 19, 2000
The large crowd was beginning to disperse and was passing me by. It had gathered a week last Saturday at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, in London, and although I wasn't part of the parade, or even standing in the crowd immediately there where people had gathered from all over the world to remember those who had died in the two great wars of that century. Nevertheless, the crowds were starting to pour by me, for I was standing very next to the North wall of Westminster Abbey. And as the crowds finally dissipated through St. Margaret's Square, I was fairly alone, standing looking at what was beside the great North wall of Westminster Abbey: For from the very front to the very back there were lines of rows and rows of poppies and these poppies were in huge wreaths and in these wreaths there were in fact remembrances of very different countries throughout the world who had fought in the last two great wars. The largest one this year belonged to a singular country. And when I went and I stood next to it, it had on it "Canada" . I spoke to a guard who was standing next to the wreaths and I asked him why the wreaths were there and he said: "This is the year when, particularly, England recognizes the contributions of Canadians". I then told him that I was a Canadian and that I was a minister in a church in Toronto, and how proud I was to see that wreath there. He leaned over and plucked a poppy out of the wreath and gave it to me and he said: "Would you please take this back to Canada with you? And when you do, say Thank-you." The poppy is right here. I then walked a few meters to the front of Westminster Abbey and although people had clearly been in there with their remembrances and their prayers, by the time I was there it was fairly empty. So I walked into this great Abbey that I hadn't been in since I was a child, and, there in the walls written on parchment, engraved in stones, are the names of some of the greatest people, greatest ministers, greatest politicians and leaders that the Western World has known. I went into a pew and I sat down quietly and I looked up to the magnificent ceiling and I couldn't help but think that there must be thousands upon thousands upon thousands of names of Christians who throughout two thousand years of history had been saints for the cause of Christ, whose names are not engraved in stone or written on parchment, who are not remembered even with poppies, whose names are not recorded in any particular religious book or in any book of history, but who, by virtue of their faith, or their commitment to Christ and the desire to serve the Church have anonymously, graciously and kindly given of themselves day in and day out for the cause of Jesus Christ.
Throughout the Bible, the names of people are important. You cannot read the Bible without recognizing that the Kingdom of God had been built through and in the Ministry of people who have names. And, many of these names are recorded in the scriptures for all of us to hear: The names of David, of Ruth , Abraham and Sarah, of John and of Lydia, and the names go on. They are given a position of prominence within the Scriptures; but, there are also some names that one almost never remembers and rarely reads. And of all the Greats in the Scriptures, I think it is the Apostle Paul who pays the greatest homage to, what I would call, "ordinary" Christians if there is such a thing. Namely, those who have given their heart and soul and mind and strength for the sake of the Gospel. And you see these names recorded in many of Paul's letters and there's a graciousness about Paul. For he understands that while many of the great names are going to be recorded in the Scriptures, while there will be many names that will be engraved in stone and written in parchment, it is the names of those, or as the Book of Revelation calls it, The Book of Life, that are the most important. Namely, those people who have committed themselves to the cause of Christ with no ulterior motive, with no desire for gain or recognition, those who have given themselves in a sacrificial and selfless way for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many times I feel that such people receive very little recognition, and indeed it is only God who knows who they are. And sometimes even ministers will go about their ministry and their job and their proclamation thinking that no-one really is even paying attention to what they are saying or what they are doing.
I am reminded of a wonderful article that I read in a British weekly newspaper where someone had written in to the Editor about preaching and about preachers. The person wrote in and she said: "You know, I have been going to church for thirty years and when I look back, I must have listened to hundreds and thousands of sermons, and frankly I don't remember a single title of any sermon that was ever preached, and I have to stretch myself to remember even a single point that was made over those thirty years. I am wondering, then, because I do not remember these things, whether or not ministers might spend their time more productively doing something else." Naturally, you can imagine that I was quite stimulated by that, only to read that there was a further letter that had come to the Editor a couple of weeks later. There was a man who had written in who had said: "Well, over the last thirty years I have eaten some 32,850 meals, most of which have been prepared by my spouse. The menu of not a single one of these can I remember at all. Nevertheless, throughout those thirty years I have received nourishment, and without them I would have starved."
What great hope it gave me, that even if I don't remember what I preached about two weeks ago, let alone two years ago, there is still some value in Christian Ministry! I don't just mean formal ministry from the pulpit, or formal ordained ministry, I mean ministry of the whole Body of Christ, for it is the ministry of the whole Body of Christ which feeds and nurtures and strengthens the Body of Christ universally. That is why I think that Paul, when writing to the Colossaeans, in mentioning the names of a number of people who had helped him, gives all of us inspiration; for there were four names that came to Paul's mind that he wanted to particularly recognize.
Now these are four men because most of these men had been in prison with him, but they apply I think to men and women universally, young and old. Because there is something about these four individuals that characterizes the importance of the Ministry of the whole Body of Christ.
The first of these characters is called Tychicus and Tychicus is what I call the trustworthy one. Tychicus was born in Ephesus, he was of Asian origin. He was someone who had gone with Paul through difficult moments. He, for example, represented the Gentile community when it met with the Jewish community in Jerusalem. He was someone who, some scholars have suggested, might have even gone to help Titus when he was in trouble in Crete. But the key about this particular person, Tychicus, was that he was indeed an emissary for the Gospel. He was a bridge between the Gentile world and the Christian faith. And without the Ministry of Tychicus representing Paul and the Gospel to the Gentile world, many people would not have heard the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tychicus should always, then, be remembered. And I must confess, that when I look at the things that Tychicus had to deal with in Colossae, when I look at the struggles that he had with the Gentile world, I realize that, in many ways, we as Christians today live in a Gentile world. And, I don't mean the Gentile world as opposed to a Jewish world, I mean the Gentile world like the world of the very earliest Church. A world that finds it very difficult to accept the Word of Faith and to believe it. A world that celebrates the pagan notion of power: that power is something which has validity in and of itself rather than the good that can be done with it. A world that decides which gods it wants to choose and tells the gods how they are to behave.
One of the things that I find particularly disturbing and dangerous today, is that there are some politicians and some people who are seeking power, and this is right across North America and even in Europe, who will try and use the most powerful name, the name of God, to justify their own accession to power: that somehow, they have been ordained to this position of power by virtue of the fact that they will repeat God's name over and over again. The gods of the time in which Tychicus was ministering, were used in the same way by people to ascend to power and to influence. Tychicus would have none of this. Tychicus was a representative of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That was his message to the world. Therein lay the truth, not in the fact that God is used, but that God calls and uses us for the sake of his Kingdom.
When I look around the world in which I live I see that in many ways the Church of Jesus Christ has withdrawn, has ceased to be an emissary in the world, has just quietly gone about its own business and fought its own little battles without any thought that the world in which we live needs emissaries who will bridge the gap between our culture and the Christian Church. And the people who do that are not those who stand in pulpits and espouse the Gospel, for we indeed reach very few. The ones who do so are the Tychicuses who sit in the pews, who go about their daily work, who are emissaries for Jesus Christ, namely you, yourselves. And when that is not done, the divide between our culture and our faith crumbles.
This past Summer I went back to a small church in Lancashire that I had known as a young boy, that had been very vibrant and, a glorious wooden edifice with a high pulpit and a beautifully carved communion table. I thought, after many years, I would go back and I would see this church. With great expectation, I drove down the road and turned left on to Main Street only to find that the church was not there. The church had become a salesroom for Jaguar motor cars. Now, I have nothing against Jaguar motor cars. In fact, if truth be known, I covet Jaguar motor cars! Let's just get it right out in the open. We all have out sins - that one's mine. However, my heart sank when I saw that the magnificent arch that had once covered a Communion Table was now covering a sales desk. And that happens, my friend, that happened because churches, because Christians have lost sight of the need to build bridges with the communities around them with the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. They had forgotten to be a Tychicus. And, when they did so, the church evaporated. We face a similar challenge today, and we need the Ministry of Tychicuses everywhere.
The second person that Paul mentions is Onesimus. I preached on Onesimus here from the great Book of Philemon some months ago. Onesimus is a wonderful person, but one of the things that I find most amazing in this particular passage from Colossae is that, while Onesimus was a slave, Paul nowhere mentions that fact in this letter. On the contrary, he treats this man, who is a social outcast from the very poorest of the poor, as if he was his equal. He actually uses the term beloved to describe him, and he says to the Church in Colossae: "I am sending Onesimus to you; he is coming on my behalf." This man who was a slave, who was a non person, in the eyes of the world, in the Kingdom of God is someone who is valuable and someone who is a witness, a diakonos.
With the débâcle in the United States over this last election, I decided to go back and read some historical books that I thought might shed some light on what is occurring. One of the most famous books on American government is by a man called Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote a famous book called Democracy in America in 1835. And, while Alexis de Tocqueville clearly reflects the nature and the mores of the time in which he was writing, there is much that de Tocqueville wrote that is very pertinent for the current situation. He wrote, for example, about equality, and he said: "You know, the world is a very unequal place, but there will come a time when everyone will want to talk about equality. And the more equal people become, then the little inequalities will become more and more important. So much so that people will be insatiable to have equality not only in big things, but also in little things. But then, he goes on and implies: "that there will be more talk of equality, but wonders whether or not it will actually occur." I have thought about that because I think that so many people that I am hearing today are talking about equality but are not doing the things that give people the status of being equal. In fact, the more we talk about equality, the more inequalities occur throughout the World. It's absurd, really.
Well, the Apostle Paul does not talk about equality in this passage. He does not have a philosophy of equality; he does not believe in natural rights of equality. Rather, he simply practises equality. He treats Onesimus as if he his brother. And while the Christian faith has often struggled with its relationship with slavery, and while oftentimes the Scriptures have been used to support slavery, and at other times the Scriptures have been used to stand against slavery, the fact of the matter is that Paul does not talk about slavery in some broad sense and sweeping sense; rather he takes a person who is a slave and he treats him as his brother, he treats him as his equal. And the Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, it seems to me, must bear witness to that in the World: That it is not the will for power that is important. It is not the rising above those who are below you that is virtuous, rather it is the recognition that God is the Creator of us all and that Christ died for us all. This was Paul's motivation with Onesimus.
The third person was Mark, and Mark was a troublesome sort. Mark had caused Paul untold grief. Indeed when he was embarking on the Ministry to Pamphylia he took Mark with him, along with his cousin Barnabas, only to find that Mark decided that the going was getting a little tough and that he no longer wanted anything to do with it. He's like many people who find if they don't like a particular thing in the Church, just decide to leave it and break fellowship from it. Paul, however, was magnanimous and gracious. Paul had understood that he had actually been wrong in the way that he had treated dear Mark, and, rather than judging him and driving him out, drew him into the Church and gave him a place where he might find strength and purpose.
What a great challenge this is to the Church of Jesus Christ. So often, my friends, we pick on petty things that divide us, rather than the glorious Gospel which unites us. We find fault in our brothers and sisters so readily, but are often so slow to forgive and to receive them and to give them another chance.
It reminds me of a story of the great Dr. Joseph Parker, and this story was told by Morris Boyd some time ago. Dr. Joseph Parker received a note that was placed under his office door one day by a member of his congregation. And the member of the congregation said: "I am going to watch and listen to every single word you say; I am going to examine every phrase that you utter; I will read carefully every word that you write; I am watching you. And when I have come to my conclusion, I will write a philosophical analysis of your ministry and present it to the congregation's board." Dr. Parker said, when he first read this he was deeply intimidated by it, until he saw that philosophical was spelled with an ”˜f'.
We are all watching each other, are we not? But we often do so ourselves imperfectly. Paul, you see, had the grace to understand that the Ministry of Mark was more important for the cause of the Kingdom than any difference that he might have had with Mark before that he put aside his differences for the sake of the greater cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You know that church in England that I mentioned that is now a Jaguar dealership. I asked one of my friends who had been a member of that church what had transpired, why it had declined. She said: "It declined, Andrew, because everyone within it was fighting about silly things." And then she showed me something - the minutes of the last meeting of the congregation. The congregation was closing its doors; it had run out of money; it had no young people; it had no choir; the minister was about to leave. And still somebody decided that they were going to pass a motion suggesting that the light bulbs in the lobby be turned from normal ones into incandescent ones. And there was a debate about it.
My friends, the Church of Jesus Christ has huge logs in its eyes. We have to learn from the way that Paul treated Mark. Which brings us to our last person, Aristarchus. Aristarchus is another one who is hardly or seldom mentioned in the Scriptures, not a name that even Church historians will remember. And yet, without his ministry to the Jewish community, I do not know where the ministry of Paul and the early Church would have been. Aristarchus was a Jew. Aristarchus has sailed with Paul to Caesarea. Aristarchus had handed letters to people. Aristarchus had represented Paul in so many different places, for Aristarchus was the reliable one. If something needed to be done, Aristarchus would do it. Paul knew that he could trust this man no matter what was happening and even the simple and the small things that were done were of the greatest importance to Aristarchus.
My Friends, each and every day, throughout the Church of Jesus Christ, there are people who are like Aristarchus. People who quietly go about their ordinary, everyday work within the Church, not seeking any glamour, not having their names engraved in stone or written in parchment or history books; people who simply understand that the stewardship of the Gospel is not just a stewardship of money, it is a stewardship of their whole lives. And, to those of you who are joining us this morning in our church, a particular word to you on this matter: I want you to follow in the footsteps of Aristarchus; that, no matter what ministry it is that you have to contribute to this church, no matter what gifts the Holy Spirit has given you for the sake of the building of the Body of Christ, no matter how small or how great, use them. Put them at the disposal of the Church. Let Christ use the gifts that He has given you for the building up of his Body. For indeed, sometimes even in the small things, the day-to-day things that are done around this church and many other churches, these are of value because they are done by you and they are done for Jesus Christ.
I was sitting in the front pew of a little Methodist chapel in a place called Croland in Lincolnshire, getting ready to say the message at my Uncle's memorial service. And I had gone ahead of time, and was sitting in the front pew and going over in my mind all the things that I wanted to say. I had a moment of quiet prayer and meditation. People were starting to gather behind me but they did not know who I was. The minister had gone and was preparing different things in the sanctuary and the family that was going to surround me had not yet arrived. I was a solitary figure in the front pew. All of a sudden, as I was sitting there, there was this incredibly crunching hug that came around my shoulders. So great was this hug that all the air went our of me. That's the sort of thing I do to other people, I never expected it to be done to me. And when I heard the words "keep kicking before you turn" I knew who it would be. And I looked around, and here, standing over me, was my swimming coach of some thirty-two years ago. This woman was magnificent as a swimming coach, and I could not believe that she would remember how I did not kick when I turned, after thirty-two years. I still don't kick when I turn but be darned, I think I am old enough now to decide for myself whether I will. I was so thrilled to see her. She said to me: "Andrew, I know you are getting prepared for a very difficult moment, but I want to tell you something. Ever since you left our town many years ago to move to Bermuda, every week, in the Mass in my local Parish, I have thought of you in my prayers. And here you are, a minister of the Gospel, giving a message at your Uncle's service."
You see, my swimcoach was an Aristarchus. She understood that even the little things, the saying of a prayer at a Mass, are, in the Kingdom of God, big things. Her name will not be in Westminster Abbey; her name probably will not be in any history book or scroll; but in the Book of Life, the Book of the Kingdom, I am sure it will be there, as, I pray, will many of you.
Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.