St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Helen preached this sermon on Wednesday 30 October 2024. Here it is for you again:

Have you ever heard people talk about life being like a journey? I think that’s an image that is used in literature and songs you start in one place and you make your way along the road picking up different experiences and altering the course as you go. I like this and I can see how it works there are times when things are going well and it’s like a gentle woodland stroll, the birds are singing and the flowers are growing. However there are other times when it’s like one of the rounds on “Total Wipeout”. Just think about it, your making your way along when suddenly a large boxing glove appears from nowhere and punches you in the stomach and you end up in a bog up to your neck in mud, or you get to a ravine and there’s no bridge, just four large red balls spaced out in front of you (now if you’ve never seen Total Wipeout this all sounds a bit mad but stick with the metaphor!). you eventually get there in the end, ok very battered and bruised but we battle on and things usually right themselves in the end.

In todays gospel Jesus is on a journey, he’s on his way to Jerusalem from Galilee and it’s a significant one. He’s going to Jerusalem to suffer and to die and he knows it. On the way to his death he’s being asked a question, and it’s a fair question, who’s going to be saved? I suppose this is the question Jesus has been teasing throughout the whole of his ministry. In the gospel of Mark this is how he starts ‘The Kingdom of God is near, repent and believe in the good news’ he seems like the one who knows and a good person to ask this question, logical. Let’s be fair Jesus gives, as we have come to expect from him, a rather cryptic answer and lets be fair it’s a bit…well…harsh as is often the way with Jesus at times in the gospel so let’s dig down a bit deeper in to what he’s saying here and see if we can take the edge off a little bit.

Jesus speaks of a road to a narrow doorway that many will try to get through but few be able to enter, many will try but fail. It does remind me a bit of the whole harder than a camel getting through the eye of a needle vibe to it. I think, for what it’s worth, the narrow doorway is less about not being able to enter but more about shedding excess weight and getting rid of the baggage not needed to follow Jesus. Those earthly attachments we just can’t quite get rid of that keep us separated from God, that kind of though and process.

There’s also a shut door and people crying outside, so who is it who gets through the door? Who gets a place! I think, as it usually is with Jesus, there’s always something else going on under the surface of what he says. I think this is Jesus reminding the people of Israel that he came to give them a message and if they chose hear it, they hear it, if they don’t then they don’t. However, there are those who the message of Jesus wasn’t aimed at but there’s something so compelling about him that other’s heard and they believe. We hear their stories littered throughout the gospels, the Canaanite woman who’s daughter needs to be healed, she was happy with the leftovers the children didn’t want as she knew they were enough to work, the centurion who asks him to heal his slave, he doesn’t even need Jesus to come all he needs is a word and he believes Jesus can save them (I mean that is faith, many of those Jesus came for didn’t have this much faith), the centurion stood at the foot of the cross and his words after everything he saw ‘Truly this man was the Son of God’. Jesus didn’t come for them, but that doesn’t mean that his message is completely inaccessible to them.

These shows of faith are amazing and I believe they are some of the most compelling parts of Jesus narrative in the gospels and they show faith beyond all the odds. I think these stories read alongside the narrative from today it is just a subtle reminder from Jesus that no one just has the right to be saved, they have to do something in return. Now whether that is doing good works and good deeds or, as one of my great hero’s of the faith says, Martin Luther, who’s commemorated tomorrow buy the Church of England, said ‘Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura (Faith and the bible) are most important, the Church of England has it’s 39 articles which says a bit of all of these. Christians have been fighting about how we will be saved since the ascension so we won’t sort it out today, they key thing is, no one can just assume that they are going to be saved, or they can sit back with their feet up as Jesus has done the hard bit, by his death and resurrection, and guaranteed salvation through that act, there’s a bit more to it. We need to know him, live by his example, do as he said, be his love in action and keep telling his story! Whether we are from the chosen group or not we live as Jesus did and that will save us.

So what can we learn from this gospel reading? I think we can see that the road is a long one, there are going to be fields and nice goings on but there are also going to be bumps and big red balls as we go along. Remember this, Jesus knows the way to the kingdom and, as he said in John’s gospel, I have gone on to prepare a place for you and I am the way to that place. It’s going to be hard and it’s going to be tough and let’s face it if it was to easy we would be really bored with it all! Jesus has opened to kingdom of God to those who will follow him so be his love in action, be his disciple and make sure the door is wide open welcoming you in and you’re not left outside weeping. Amen