Sermon Archive
Not Seeing the Trees for the Wood
Sermon preached by John Armes at Holy Communion on 17 June 2007
1 Kings 21:1-10,15-21 ; Luke 7:36-8:3
Three cheers for Harry Hallowes! He's the 70 year old man who is now the rightful owner of a valuable plot of land next to Hampstead Heath in London. He'd lived there in an old shack for 18 years, and so when a large development company tried to get him out he invoked his squatter's rights to claim the land for himself. It's worth £2m - not that he's counting; it's his home.
I salute him because more often than not when the little man takes on the large conglomerates he's likely to come off worst. It's so refreshing to discover that the rules of Naboth's vineyard don't always apply - refreshing to be reminded that our judicial system does sometimes protect the person at the bottom of the pile.
But before we become complacent we should remember that the reason Harry's case is so newsworthy is that it seems to go against the grain; Naboth's misfortune still has a contemporary ring. Naboth is minding his own business, enjoying the land of his ancestors - King Ahab wants it and gets into an almighty sulk when Naboth refuses. After all, hasn't the king made an entirely reasonable offer and wouldn't it make so much more sense if the land next to his palace should belong to him? Jezebel agrees, and Naboth discovers, too late, that it might have been wiser to accept the inevitable.
Yes, I know, blatant murder of the kind planned by Jezebel would be harder to get away with in today's Scotland - and yet even in Scotland there are henchmen (and henchwomen) who will pander to power and do its bidding. Money too, as we've been hearing again this week, a bung here or there, can sort the bottom line and smooth the way to success.
There's a kind of seductive calculation made by the powerful - a calculation with which we collude. It says that the needs of the many always take precedence over the needs of the few; it says that government, corporations, leaders, talkers always know best what the needs of the many are. All very biblical. Wasn't this Caiaphas's line? 'It is expedient that one man should die for the people.' His numbers added up.
Expedient too to pay a bribe or two to ensure our businesses are kept competitive in the world market, jobs are safeguarded, diplomatic relations assured; expedient that a few people should die to bring a western way of life to a middle-eastern country. The US TV drama series 24, or our own Spooks, both seem to work on this principle, it seems to me. Torture, brutality, summary killing are all justified in the name of freedom.
Leadership, so they say, is about seeing the bigger picture, seeing the wood rather than obsessing about the trees. And it's not just poor leaders who find themselves at times faced with making decisions they know will wreck some lives in order to make many lives better. Yet the interesting, and uncomfortable thing about today's readings is that they seem to be saying that trees actually matter. And not only that, but behaviour that ignores or despises the needs of individuals has consequences; smooth calculations about expediency can damage the person making those calculations.
Easy enough to see with Ahab and Jezebel. They have so far betrayed the responsibilities of kingship that they've put themselves beyond the protection even their status offers. A bloody end awaits them.
Simon the Pharisee's not guilty of murder, but he too despises an individual who he considers less than himself. When he looks at the woman, crying and fussing over his guest, he sees her simply as a means to get one up on Jesus. Surely a true prophet would know who this is that is touching him and pawing him in this extreme manner. Simon sees a sinner; Jesus sees a broken person who has discovered something of the healing love of God. The woman is able to behave the way she does because she has discovered forgiveness - that she is loved and accepted. Simon on the other hand can only behave meanly, his arrogance and stubbornness carry their own punishment; they make him a host who doesn't know how to show hospitality, and a believer who fails to see God even when he sits across the table. As Jesus points out, it's the woman who is the true host, and the true believer.
I say this is uncomfortable because whilst we're meant to condemn both Ahab and Simon, yet they're only making the same calculations we often make. Caiaphas was not a bad man. No doubt he could have said, 'Hand on heart, guv'nor, I did what I believed to be right.' And which of us, placed in his position, needing to keep the peace in unruly, occupied Jerusalem, would have made a different calculation? And yet our faith grows not from the forest but from one tree, planted outside Jerusalem that day; and the man nailed to it speaks to us more powerfully of the nature of God than any other individual has ever done.
In that one tree the whole wood begins to make sense; the big picture becomes clear because of one detail. They say the devil is in the detail but that's where God is too.
This is consoling for us as individuals. The One who called the universe into being with a word, whispers also words of love into our ears, words of acceptance and forgiveness. It's also unsettling, because many of us are relatively powerful people who have a vested interest in keeping life calm and untroubled and everything in its proper place. But what, I wonder, is the cost of such self-interest - not just for those we ignore, but for us. What judgement, what punishment do we suffer, perhaps unwittingly, because we do our sums and the figures add up?
For if our readings today tell us anything it's that there is not an easy calculation whereby individual rights must give way to the many. Naboth's right to keep his property, the woman's right to be treated with dignity, Harry Hallowes right to his own home, our right to privacy, freedom and security, are not optional extras - things to enjoy whilst the road is easy but which must be discarded as soon as they start to make life difficult for people who're used to getting things their own way. 'We're trying to run a free country here! So why don't you lot do as you're told?'
King Ahab should be there to ensure that Naboth can enjoy his vineyard not to steal it from him; Simon the Pharisee should be there to mediate the forgiveness of God to the woman not to condemn her; modern government should be here not to control and limit but to empower and liberate. The poor, the powerless, the irritating, the people in our way are not distractions from God's call to us to love our neighbour; they are the reason for that call.
So, a self-seeking King and a self-righteous host, a dispossessed man and a despised woman, point us towards a gospel which values each of us and which teaches us that the health of our society as well as our personal well-being, ultimately depends on how we treat the weakest individuals amongst us. They offer a reminder that the wood is only there because it's made up of trees.
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