Acts 7. 55-end, 1 Peter 2.2-10, John 14. 1-14
Why Christian Aid? Not, of course because it aids only Christians, although I hope to explain why it does indeed help us as Christians and that is a reason why we should support it generously. It aids us, as Christians, I suggest, because it is a manifestation of Christianity in action; it makes the Gospel real and it helps to bring about the Kingdom. Living the gospel and seeking and promoting the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is, I think what we as Christians should be about. This it is Hope in action.
It’s serendipitous that our readings today give us some inspiring insights on this theme because they are all in rather different ways concerned with hope, and the action or the state of mind needed to realize hope.
In John we hear of the hope we can have for the afterlife. I was puzzled by the meaning of the reference to there being, in the old vocabulary, “many mansions in my father’s house” until an elderly gay relative told me how comforting he found these words. His life had been nearly ruined by subterfuge and frustration; heaven for him would be liberation and tolerance. I hope gay people nowadays do not need that comforting thought, but we should not delude ourselves that the human spirit will not devise other intolerances and means of persecuting its fellow creatures. But we are assured that things will be different in Heaven. There there will be a place for everyone and each individual will be respected.
We can see this persecuting instinct at work again in the story od Stephen; his is less calmly comforting vision than John’s; it’s as dramatic as a Veronese altarpiece. I don’t know whether Veronese did paint a martyrdom of St Stephen; there is not one in the current exhibition at the National Gallery, but there could easily be as the words of Acts paint a vivid picture as Stephen looks up beyond the crowd of agitated and angry accusers- such a crowd, and so agitated there may well be a supernumerary arm or two raised to hurl a rock. We can see Paul in a corner (underneath a huge horse’s head perhaps, sticking into the painting like a antlered baronial trophy); he is guarding a pile of brightly coloured coats, but his gaze, with just the beginning of a sense of ambiguity, is on Stephen whose own gaze together with the angles of the gesticulating crowd take us up to a heavenly vision. There is hope even in this almost desperate moment.
Noah, on the other hand, has been cooped up in the foetid air of the ark, guarding the promise for one hundred and fifty and more days; he now emerges into the sunshine and we can imagine the crystal atmosphere after rain. But the water is still terrifyingly all around and this is the moment of truth; will the water really subside and will life begin again? The smallest sign, a twig of an olive tree is, like the gesture of breaking bread at Emmaus, or the mere name “Mary” in the garden, enough to convince him that God has kept his promise and Creation is started anew.
In Noah we see hope in action in the world; in the renewal of creation. The new world that Noah finds is this world in which we live, not a heavenly creation; it’s a world that will depend for its happiness and success on the respect for all creation and tolerance of all our fellow creatures each of which has found its resting place in the Ark.
The readings from John and Acts look to a heavenly world, reached through death, and suffering- stoning and the cross. But other worldly though heaven is, it is a world reached through following Jesus as “the Way”- we know this other world through the actions of Jesus as a man, physical actions interventions in the physical world. in Stephen’s case suffering stoning, in Christ’s the cross.
Hope, as Paul tells us, is the companion of Faith- and we see this in Noah’s confidence and perseverance, in Stephen’s trusting bravery and even in Thomas’ doubts- reasonable questions, after all, result in more solid faith. Having mentioned hope and faith, you’ll be unsurprised that charity comes next- and a specific charity, Christian Aid.
Christian Aid is an important charity for me- and I think it should be for you too, because it epitomizes what the Gospel should be about; it is hope, faith and the love for our neighbor, in action. Although carried out by human agents and, of course, capable therefore of occasional lapse, its projects, activities and campaigns show us what God is, or can be working in the world; faith hope and love realized.
Its work is most obvious in its participation in high profile urgent relief efforts in response to disasters; this immediate compassionate response to human suffering is the shadow of Christ’s response to human need in his miracles. But the relief of hunger and disease requires more than the handout of food and drugs, and Christian Aid does much more work in trying to change the structures and underlying attitudes which allow poverty, disease and hunger to happen. This is continuing the work of God our creator who made the world and meant it to be good. So it’s right that Christian Aid should campaign for fair trading agreements, for tolerance, mediation and justice; for the rights of women and exploited children, and for populations deprived of freedom and basic economic rights. Behind this pressure, constant, sometimes gentle and occasionally, justifiably, strident, is the hope for the heavenly kingdom; a place with many mansions where God’s will should be done on earth as it is heaven. It is the faith that though charity, through love, that can happen. It’s an odd, perhaps accidental, but happy quirk that the archaic word for love- charity – should now be the word for the way in which we make God’s love for us and ours for our neighbour, real in the world.
This is work in which we can and should share-indeed it can only come to fruition if it is shared. That sharing takes place on several levels; Christian Aid invariably works with local partners in the countries where it operates; this is of course in part to avoid the facile accusation that Aid is just colonialism in another guise. In fact, Christian Aid like most charities working in the developing world, will use the tattered structures of colonialism where that is effective, but always working with the people whom it seeks to help. But for us this sharing means supporting Christian Aid by following, understanding and telling others what it does, by joining its campaigns but above all by contributing financially- and that you will by now have guessed, is the main point of this sermon. I want to encourage you to dig deep into your pockets, to double what you first though you might give and to fill up and fill in those red envelopes. Such generosity is not the only way of spreading the Gospel, but I hope I have persuaded you it is a way- and an effective and important one.
So think of your fiver, or even better your twenty pound note, as a dove sent out into the dark and dangerous parts of the world; places where man and nature have combined to drown the human spirit, and think of it returning with just a little twig of hope for a better world. Can you think of anything better that you can buy for twenty quid? Amen.