Apart from my teenage years, I’ve been going to church all my life. That being so, I must have heard thousands of sermons over the years, and yet I can remember very few of them. One sermon I have always remembered though is one I heard preached many years ago, before I stopped going to church during my teenage years in fact. And what I remember about this particular sermon is a question that our parish priest, Fr Noel Pyatt, asked during the sermon. He asked that, if Christianity were to be suddenly made illegal in this country, and to be a Christian meant running the risk of being arrested and imprisoned, and perhaps tortured and even executed if we weren’t willing to renounce our faith, how many of us would be prepared to remain faithful? He asked if we would, in the face of such persecution, be willing to openly declare our faith in Christ, or would we try to hide it, perhaps thinking that it doesn’t really matter what we say because God would know that we still believe and so if we denied our faith to save our own skin God would understand and forgive us.
I was reminded of this sermon earlier this week when Fr Alex and I were at a synod of the local Chapter of SSC, the Society of the Holy Cross. One of our brethren has recently been in Ghana to admit some local clergy to the Society, and he was telling us about some of the quite amazing things and people he met there. He told us about a couple of priests who’d made a 9-hour journey, by motorbike as I recall, simply to be admitted to the Society. And he also told us about an old lady who walks for an hour every Sunday to go to church, and presumably back home again afterwards. She is 90 years old. We’re not talking here about people who are facing persecution for their faith, but these stories reminded me of Fr Pyatt’s sermon because these people show a quite remarkable level of commitment to their faith, a level of commitment that, it pains me to say, is sadly lacking in this country and among the people of our churches.
Just think about what those people in Ghana do for the sake of their faith. Two priests who travel for 9 hours, over roads that in many places are little more than dirt tracks, just to share fellowship with their brother clergy. A 90-year-old woman who walks for an hour, 2 hours in fact, every Sunday to go to church. Now compare that to the things we hear so often from people who come to our churches, or often don’t come to our churches, in fact. I can’t come because the service is too early, or too late as the case may be. It’s too cold, either outside or in church.
I didn’t want to come out because it was raining. I was out last night and didn’t want to get up. I can’t go because there are no buses and it’s too far to walk. I’m not coming because I don’t like what the vicar said in his sermon last week (or maybe they just don’t like the vicar!). I’m not coming because I don’t like what so and so did or said or the way they spoke to me. I’m not coming if we’ve got no music, I’m not coming if there’s a baptism on. I’m not coming because there are too many kids and it’s too noisy. I’ve heard all of these things, and many more, used by people who call themselves Christians as excuses for not coming to church.
If we think about these and the many other trivial excuses that people in this country use for not coming to church to worship the Lord, which is the obligation of all confirmed Christians to do every Sunday I must add, and compare them to the stories of the lengths those Ghanian Christians are prepared to go to for their faith, I ask you, in all honesty, which of them do you think would remain faithful in the face of real persecution on account of their faith?
People are so easily put off doing that most basic, and simple, of all Chistian practices, just coming to church to join with their fellow Christians in worshipping the Lord. I’m sure that those who do use such excuses for not coming to church do think that it doesn’t really matter because God will understand our reasons and forgive us. But how can we square that belief with Jesus’ own words;
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
And;
“For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
How can we read these words of the Lord himself and doubt that simply saying we’re Christians is not enough? How can we read them and not understand that we have to show that we’re Christians by our actions. And how can read them and we think that we can deny our faith when it suits us and that this will have no consequences for us with the Lord?
If we want to call ourselves Christians with any real integrity, we have to show it by our actions, and this includes remaining faithful and doing what the Lord calls us to do no matter what; even if we don’t feel like it, even if it is inconvenient, even if it means doing things we’d rather not do, even if it means remaining faithful in the face of persecution.
Our readings this morning speak very clearly about this. 2 Maccabees tells a story about remaining faithful to God in the face of persecution and in the Epistle, St Paul urges us to keep the word of the Lord and do what the Lord commands, so that we might ‘be delivered from wicked and evil men’, from those who have no faith. And the reward for such faithfulness is the resurrection to eternal life. But we know this, so why do some people find it so easy to be unfaithful, and for the slightest of reasons? Perhaps it’s because there’s a little bit of the Sadducee in us?
As we’re told in the Gospel, the Sadducees, didn’t believe in the resurrection to eternal life, and in an attempt to discredit Jesus, they used an argument about marriage from the Law of Moses to try and prove that there could be no resurrection. But what their argument betrayed was an inability to look beyond their own experience and view of the world. To them, the law must apply to those in heaven as it did to those on earth, and if it didn’t, or couldn’t, then there could be no heaven, at least for mortals, and so there could be no resurrection. But as Jesus explained, the law that applies to people on earth no longer applies to those in heaven, because they are not mortals any longer but heavenly creatures. They don’t need the law to keep them in God’s ways because they’re in the very presence of God where nothing that is not holy can possibly be.
Again, we must know that. But even so, I do think there is something of the Sadducee in us because if we think about the weak, pitifully weak at times, excuses we can use for not remaining faithful to the Lord, what are they but an indication of our inability to look beyond the here and now. Yes, we want heaven and yes, we know what we have to do to get there, but right now I don’t want to do what it takes to get there because there’s something else I’d rather do instead. Or perhaps it’s not really convenient for us to be faithful at that particular time, but then, never mind, we can always be faithful again another time can’t we? Or perhaps we simply don’t like that particular part of faithfulness and say, ‘Well, on the whole I don’t mind doing this, but I draw a line at that.’
Being a Christian is this country these days is not easy, if it ever was, but we don’t have the kind of persecution that Christians have often suffered and still do suffer in some parts of the world. Even so, for some, remaining faithful to Christ seems to be very difficult when that clashes with their own comfort and convenience, let alone the mild difficulties we can face on account of our faith. So, just how committed to our faith are we, really? What would we be prepared to do to show our faith and faithfulness? Would any of us be prepared to spend 9 hours travelling over dirt tracks just to share some fellowship with fellow members of the Body of Christ? Would any of us be prepared to walk for an hour to get to church every Sunday morning? Just how much are we, and would we be prepared to do and to go through for the sake of Christ who gave up everything and suffered so much for us?
Amen
Propers for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Remembrance Sunday) 9th November 2025
Entrance Antiphon
Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.
The Collect
Almighty and merciful God, graciously keep from us all adversity, so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
Prayer after Communion
Nourished by this sacred gift, O Lord, we give you thanks and beseech your mercy, that, by the pouring forth of your Spirit, the grace of integrity may endure in those your heavenly power has entered. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 