Seventh Sunday after Trinity – evening
Sunday 4th August 2019
Trinity 7 – Proper 13 – evening
Gen. 50. 4-26
1 Cor. 14. 1-19
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
I wonder if anyone here has ever found themselves in the role of a “whistle blower”; needing to speak out about something that they felt was just wrong? Now I am not asking anyone for a confession or to put yourself in a vulnerable position. One thing is certain; speaking out is never likely to win friends (even if sometimes it does influence people).
When the Church speaks out with a prophetic voice – and maybe we do not do it often enough – then feathers will be ruffled and some will not like what they hear. When the Church speaks out with a prophetic voice, then often we are accused of getting involved with politics. But as one of my heroes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, “those who say that the church should stay out of politics is not reading the same Bible that I am!”
So speaking out – prophesying – as Paul has it, is what the Church is partly for. And even if sometimes we upset people, well so be it. We cannot always be dispensing comfort and ease. Sometimes the gospel message is an uncomfortable – a challenging – one to hear. When it appears that maybe God’s justice runs counter to our own ease of life and demands a change of direction from us. And there are times too when the Church needs to hear the voice of prophecy of those within and outside it! We do not have a monopoly of justice and truth… in fact sometimes we fall very short sadly.
So I am all with Paul when he commends the need to prophesy in church. That is one reason why I think it matters to try and include some small interpretation of Scripture at every service. Even if it is only a couple of minutes – there should be something to make you think a little deeper about the words we have heard – even if only to disagree with the Vicar! We break open God’s Word to share its meaning, just as we break the bread and share the wine in a Eucharist.
Speaking in tongues, however, is a feature of worship with which I am not so comfortable – neither I suspect are many here this evening! Speaking in tongues tends to be a feature of a particular style of charismatic worship that seems rather far away from a traditional sung Evensong heard in a traditional English country parish church. And yet, probably in the right circumstances and in another setting I might find it totally appropriate. And as a linguist by background I have always had a fascination for foreign tongues and enjoyed getting my tongue around unfamiliar sounds and words. All languages share certain characteristics – but there are also marked differences. Russian for example has 10 vowel sounds instead of the 5 we are more used to.
Paul wanted the early church to be a family where no-one should feel dis-abled by lack of knowledge or understanding as to the message of the Gospel – the meaning and significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. So we strive – as he encouraged us – to excel in the gifts that build up the church.
And Christians are very good at mis-understanding each other sometimes. People of faith have no monopoly of tolerance and comprehension. Our OT reading this evening gave us a good example of the mis-trust that can build up in a faith community. Joseph and his brothers went through a lot when they were first re-united in Egypt. There was much to be forgiven on both sides – especially perhaps on that of Joseph, as he had after all been sold into slavery by his half-brothers and his father had been told that he was dead! But then comes the big reconciliation and all the family is brought into Egypt to escape the famine and live in relative comfort.
Then Jacob/Israel, the patriarch, dies and is buried. And suddenly all the brothers are thrown into fear and apprehension. “What if Joseph didn’t really mean it when he said he forgave them? What if now he was planning to be avenged, even though many years had passed?” After all – he was so well assimilated as an Egyptian overlord, he seemed more like a foreigner than their own flesh and blood … and they all had a guilty conscience about what they had done to their boastful and annoying younger brother.
But Joseph’s word is to be trusted. He understands that God’s purposes have been served – even if in a rather roundabout and painful way for him personally. He has been place in a position where he can help his family to survive and thrive.
And so Joseph as an old man in his turn, prophesies to his people that God will always be there to rescue them, to come to their aid, when times become challenging and difficult. More than that, he can look forward to a time when God will restore them to the land that he originally promised to Abraham many years in the past.
The consequences of that promise are ones that we still live with to this day. Much of the tension between Arab and Jew, between Israeli and Palestinian, hinges on that promise and that prophecy. What seems like a message of liberation to one side, can so easily seem like a message of conquest and exploitation to another. And the great irony is that both Jew and Arab trace their origins back to Abraham and revere him as a patriarch of their peoples.
So it is important to speak out. To speak out about injustice, about how we see and understand the world. About sin and evil in the world – especially when we see it manifest in corporate terms by large institutions or nation states. About the dangers for our planet if we continue to use up the natural resources God has given us at an unsustainable rate. And as we speak out with our prophetic voice, so we must expect to attract controversy, opposition and disagreement. But better to speak out and be heard than for our words to become like so much unintelligible babble, making a nice sound – maybe even bringing comfort, but ultimately lacking any significant meaning.
Thanks be to God.