Collect
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers of your people who call upon you; and 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; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
or
Lord of creation, whose glory is around and within us: open our eyes to your wonders, that we may serve you with reverence and know your peace at our lives’ end, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Post Communion
Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Old Testament – Proverbs 1.20–33
Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you refused,
have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
and because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
when panic strikes you like a storm,
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
would have none of my counsel,
and despised all my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.
For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.’
Psalm 19
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God ♦
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2 One day pours out its song to another ♦
and one night unfolds knowledge to another.
3 They have neither speech nor language ♦
and their voices are not heard,
4 Yet their sound has gone out into all lands ♦
and their words to the ends of the world.
5 In them has he set a tabernacle for the sun, ♦
that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course.
6 It goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again, ♦
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; ♦
the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple.
8 The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart; ♦
the commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; ♦
the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, ♦
sweeter also than honey, dripping from the honeycomb.
11 By them also is your servant taught ♦
and in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can tell how often they offend? ♦
O cleanse me from my secret faults!
13 Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me; ♦
so shall I be undefiled, and innocent of great offence.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, ♦
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
Epistle – James 3.1–12
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Gospel – Mark 8.27–38
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
Sermon on Trinity 16
“How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is [such] a fire.”
Isn’t the epistle absolutely accurate in this description of the fierce effects of speech? This is particularly true during elections. Other campaigns also try to stir us up to their way of thinking and move us into a crowd of like-thinking people. When we join that crowd, do we stop thinking about what is right and good? In our hearts, don’t we all burn hotly when we hear lies or we are the butt of calumny? Don’t our lives turn to ash when we take to heart the wickedness of the people around us?
Our lives, as our writer makes clear, are like those great forests that blaze – just like those forest fires that threatened Athens last month. We feel the threat of extinction when tongues wag with lies, those lies which mock what we consider authentic in our lives. Jesus calls those around him an “adulterous and sinful generation”. He even berates Peter because of his timidity in face of the cross of “life in all its fullness.” He says, “Get behind me Satan!” when “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him” – for his words about suffering and death, for his prediction of the end of the son of man on the cross.
Throughout his ministry Jesus warns about truth and how difficult it is to live. Imagine how hard it was to hear that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and the certainty of his death. He was speaking about the end of a life of fullness which the disciples and believers had experienced. It is no wonder Peter began to rebuke Jesus at those words. Can we accept a friend’s words that he or she is about to take the last steps on the journey through this vale of tears? Such statements are devastating between people who love each other. I can well understand Peter’s “rage”, which I think is only Peter’s bitter disappointment when he is told to be silent when he made his pronouncement of who Jesus is – the Messiah.
Imagine that! When you have told that significant other of the esteem and honour you hold them, to be told to be silent – ordered not to mention that wonderful good news to the world, that news of universal salvation. It would be like telling me not to extol the virtues of my wife.
However, that silence should make us remember and treasure the value of that person. It should make us very careful about the words we say – especially in the light of the reading from James we had today.
In spite of Luther’s judgement on the Letter of James, we need to take his letter seriously, for it calls to mind the responsibility we all have whenever we speak. What we say can become the moment when other person takes us at our word. We may not realise it, but we are teachers every moment of our lives. Whatever we say may be taken seriously by those listening to us. We have to realise that everything we say will be heard and someone will take it personally.
James tells us to be careful in what we say: he also says that teachers bear a greater responsibility in their lives because they are working with vulnerable people – the people who are searching for meaning. Teachers need to be truthful, guiding their pupils to be honest in all their dealings. – Dare I say that everyone bears that responsibility? Shall I say parents especially bear this heavy burden of safe-guarding?
We all know the expression, “Loose lips sink ships”, don’t we? We are all ships on life’s ocean. So we all bear the responsibility of safety on this sea. We don’t want to cause others to sink into the chaos of the deep. James is right to tell us to weigh our words carefully before we let them loose. Life can be seen as avoiding the flotsam and jetsam on the waters we navigate. We should not add to the obstacles in other people’s courses. Nor do we want to encounter anything thrown overboard from their voyages – it is enough to struggle with our own shifting cargo and baggage on board our own ships during our journeys.
The ocean is getting more and more crowded, isn’t it? – It is just like our lives with the inconsiderate and unconsidered words jettisoned in our way. The seas are covered with the plastics collecting in the Pacific to form a new continent of waste. We have to admit that we are now adrift near that sort of danger in our own lives.
How did we get here? Have we listened to the siren calls of the crowd rather than the silent voice of our conscience, that still small voice of calm which we hear as Jesus’ own voice? What words of comfort have the crowd given us? The crowd does not pacify but it enflames. We can see this happening all the time all around us.
The words of bitterness, of ill-use, of hatred – they fly with great speed around us and, if we are not strong, strike us to the heart, destroying the life we want to lead. Sometimes they are not directed towards us directly, but like overheard conversations they sting and break the bones of our self confidence and self worth. That is the dangerous power of words and overhearing rather than direct and bold conversation.
That is why, I think, Jesus told his disciples to remain silent about the truth of his life until all is revealed about this son of man, the messiah everyone expected. If we were to go off at half-cock, no one will know the truth – even we who would want to speak about Jesus. We might speak well before we understood just who this saviour is. Jesus rebukes Peter powerfully, doesn’t he? “Get behind me, Satan!” How could he say that to the man who called him “the Messiah”?
I think that precisely because Peter did not understand what the messiah’s mission was, that is to say, Jesus came to light up the world with truth about life, to offer enlightenment to each and every one of us through life in all its fullness. That does not mean that we should chatter and run off at the tongue about our latest experience. No, I think Jesus wants us to be considered and considerate when we speak. Out of silence comes the truth, our voices become the still small voices of conscience for all around us, voices which call for the deepest love to happen between strangers, as deep a love as we have towards God and ourselves.
The crowd, that wicked generation, threatens us, just as it did Jesus, but Jesus understood that sacrifice he was about to make, that “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world” which we considered last week. That was the whole purpose of his existence. We should also understand our lives as a giving up when we live out our ownmost possibility of love, our christian agape, with the quiet confidence of someone whose words burn away the dross of untruth, those considered and considerate words of true love, a silent love at the centre of the whirlwind of life.