Change - we’ve lived through a lot of it since I was with you in February. Living through change is a roller coaster even if our hearts are secured to God’s eternal changelessness. The scripture readings for the 16th Sunday after Trinity speak of that sort of security. The first reading from Ezekiel Chapter 18 is very direct: ‘repent… cast away from you all transgressions… get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, turn (change) and live’. The good news hidden in this otherwise bleak passage is God’s favour towards anyone who takes responsibility for what’s wrong in their life and changes it. ‘Grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them’ reads the Collect.
We have change of mind again in the Gospel from Matthew 21: ‘A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went’.’ Our Lord isn’t concerned with what people say about his will, let alone their background, be that religious or otherwise, just that we do God’s will and not just say we will. As someone who says the Our Father three times a day this passage concerns me. In Peterson’s paraphrase I keep saying ‘set the world right’ but often with little attention to setting my own heart right.
The wonder of Christianity is how quickly God welcomes a change of heart. So much so that the difference between a saint and a sinner has been defined not in terms of the lower quantity of sins as in the shorter time they take to repent of them. Ezekiel and Our Lord make clear God’s scrutiny is not of our past failures but how we set our sails for the future, for the hallowing of God’s name, for his kingdom and will and setting the world right.
I confess that when I think, say or do a wrong thing or make a glaring omission I am slow to find a change of heart because I wallow in my failure. ‘O that I should think that.. what a stupid think to say though I fancy I’m intelligent… how could I do that… or not do that?’ Worse still I find myself angry with God for my failures forgetting his merciful hand reaching out to me. God is not the one who pushes us down, but the one who picks us up. How quick are we to reach for his outstretched hand? Do we even reach out for it? Or are we too proud, choosing to try to get up by ourselves?
Our second reading contains the ultimate reassurance that what the other two readings convey will come true for us when we have a change of heart. It is a parable grounded in history, It is an early Christian hymn relayed by St Paul in his letter to the Philippians to remind them of what God has done for them in Christ. This reminder is part of a call to look not just to their own interests but to the interests of others.
Since I was last with you in February I have been serving as interim Chaplain at Ardingly College and this term we have an emphasis on teaching our 1100 pupils humility. There is a recognition that humility among students is their greatest good not to mention also its being essential to College dynamics, with social distancing. How do you teach self-forgetfulness to teenagers? It’s an uphill struggle even for adults as well grown as myself!
St Francis de Sales says we should change as Christians, always be on the move, building these two virtues - humility and confidence in God. Without humility we can’t be open to change for the better. Without confidence in God we dare not ‘do what things we ought to do’ out of disbelief in God’s grace and power faithfully to help us change.
‘Though he was in the form of God, Jesus Christ did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
Change - scripture dares to suggest there is change in God, emptying of self to and from the persons of the Blessed Trinity. That emptying of love is for our filling. Our Lord dies in our place to live in our place by his Spirit. As Jesus emptied himself for us in death on the cross he calls us to humble ourselves, accepting the hardships we are surrounded by at this time as loving God-sends. Precisely at the moments we take our lives, hour by hour to the cross, confessing ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’, especially at Mass, we find that love and we capture the forward momentum of the Holy Spirit. God who does not change is close enough to empathise with the changes and chances of our lives so we can reach out to him, touch and enter into his eternal changelessness. This we call repentance, end of all argument about our circumstances and all argument with God himself.
Sisters and brothers, this morning, in the maelstrom of the COVID afflicted world, we have an invitation to change that will make a difference to us, to St John’s, to Burges Hill and to the world. From Ezekiel: ‘Cast away from you [all negativity] and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit’. From the teaching of Our Lord: ‘He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went’. Is there something you have got to change your mind about this morning so you can set the world right starting with yourself. Then from St Paul. As Jesus emptied himself for you in death he calls you to humble yourself, to accept God’s will in your situation so you can be granted the power to set the world right. So be it!
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