Luminous Darkness

Service for the Feast of St. Cecilia
Sermon Preached in the Chapel of St. Mary’s College, Durham University, UK
22 November 2005

Romans 12:2-8
Luke 4:16-24

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

It was the end of a long working day in a small hospital on the outskirts of the city. The doctor was was sitting at his desk finishing off the last bits of paperwork when he looked up to see a woman coming in with her two boys. One was thirteen years old, the other was three, and both were sick. He quickly examined both children and found that the illnesses, though serious, were easily treatable. He gave the woman the prescriptions she needed and sent her on her way. A few months later he saw the woman again and asked how her children were doing. She got a sad, far-away look in her eyes and quietly told him that the older boy was doing well but the younger one was dead. She had only been able to afford the medicine for one child and had made the impossibly painful choice to give it to the older boy. She then had to watch her younger son die.

In our gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus quotes the following words from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

After reading this passage in the temple, Jesus said to the people gathered there: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. His comment of course relates in part to the opening lines of the Isaiah passage describing his spirit-filled call from God, but it also relates to the rest of the passage. Much of what is described will make up elements of Jesus’ ministry as he preaches and teaches: bringing the good news to the poor and those on the margins of society, literally giving sight to the blind, and releasing those held captive or oppressed by sin or other afflictions. However, the final point in the passage bears further study and is what I would like to discuss with you this evening.

The year of the Lord’s favor described here was the Jubilee Year in the Jewish religious calendar that occurred every fifty years and involved, according to legislation in the Book of Leviticus, three things: rest of the soil, the return of landed property to its original owner who had been driven by poverty to sell it, and the freeing of any Israelites who, because of poverty or another reason, had become slaves of other Jews. This ongoing cycle tried to guarantee that wealth and land would never be accumulated by only a very few people, made it impossible for anyone to be born into unending poverty or slavery, and gave anyone who had encountered hardship or failure the opportunity to start over again. In other words, the goal of these policies was to try and keep the entire nation of Israel on an equal footing, with no one person, family, or social class dominating the society.

However, with these words, Jesus is saying to all those present in the temple, and to us here today, that with his incarnation God is proclaiming that the year of the Lord’s favor will be with the human race for the rest of time or, as the Orthodox often put it, unto ages of ages. This is not a cycle of constantly reoccurring years as in the Jewish tradition, but a complete and utter recreation of the entire cosmos. God has taken a world broken by human sin where people had to be reminded to care for those who were in need by a legal provision and remade it into something far greater than it could ever have been before. In this new creation, in the new Jerusalem that is coming into the world in Jesus, the new commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself, and your new neighbor is every other human being.

The problem is, though, that we most certainly do not find ourselves living in the eternal year of the Lord’s favor. Our world is crippled by human weakness and suffering, across a whole range of global-scale problems that lead to situations like the terrible choice made by the mother I described earlier. Her story was adapted from a text by Adebayo Adedeji, a former Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations, and describes a situation he encountered in Zambia, a country in Africa with enormous social and economic problems, and where almost half of the population has HIV/AIDS.

The specific issue that I would like to bring to your attention today is third world debt, one of the main working points of the Make Poverty History campaign. Now, I can see you rolling your eyes as I mention debt relief, and I know that it is a topic which has been covered so extensively by the media and by politicians that it has lost a lot of its energy as a focus for action. However, I believe with absolute conviction that it is an issue that must still challenge us and that, as Christians, we have a moral obligation to continue to campaign vigorously to get these debts forgiven. There are still numerous countries that are having to pay between 20-25% of their annual incomes towards debt servicing instead of towards education or health care and this situation is unacceptable in the eternal year of the Lord’s favor.

The governments and institutions that are creditors for these debts would be very happy for us to say that we are sick of the endless discussion and would be pleased just to let the issue go, but there are still very serious issues to be addressed. One profound and terrible example of the effect of debt on poor countries is the crisis that occurred in Argentina in 2001 when the economy of that country collapsed, leading to widespread unemployment and starvation among the populace, and eventually to rioting and violence. The International Monetary Fund offered a $20 billion bail out loan, but as British journalist Greg Palast reported: “Argentina owed $128 billion in debt [in mid 2001]. Normal interest plus the premium amounted to $27 billion a year. In other words, Argentina’s people didn’t net one penny from the $20 billion in ‘bailout’ loans. The debt grew, but none of the money escaped New York, where it lingered to pay interest to U.S. creditors holding the bonds.”

Now I mentioned the Make Poverty History campaign earlier, and I want to return to it now. I am proud to be a supporter of the campaign, and I believe that its goals are laudable. However, one of the problems that I see with it is that of the people that I talk to who go around wearing white wristbands, many of them, at best, have only a limited idea what the main goals of the campaign are and, at worst, are wearing the wristbands as a fashion accessory or because of peer pressure. Just so you know, the three main points of Make Poverty History are: Trade Justice, Drop The Debt, and More & Better Aid.

In our lesson from Romans we are told that we are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may discern the will of God, that is, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This renewed mind is able, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, to think for itself what will please God instead of being darkened by the deceitfulness of sin. Please do not buy a white wristband or join the Make Poverty History campaign or even talk to your friends and families about reliving third world debt simply because you think that I have told you to in this sermon. It should be the work of the Spirit within you that is urging you on, not my words.

And this means that you, and I, have serious work to do before we take up this call to action. My preparation for this sermon led me to realize that I do not know nearly as much about these issues as I should to be able to talk about them with any real conviction, and I certainly have not experienced anything close to the situation of the distressed woman whose story I told at the beginning.

Since today is St. Cecilia’s day and she is, among other things, the patron of church music, I would like to conclude by reading one of the great hymns of the church. This is a text that we hear frequently, perhaps so frequently that we forget how radical and challenging it really is. It is the great song that Mary sang upon learning that she was to be the mother of God’s only son, Jesus Christ. Remember that Mary herself was a peasant, a person of no great account in the world, and neither was her son at his birth. Listen especially to the middle part of the song, and as Advent approaches, I would ask you to let the Holy Spirit who is moving within you renew your mind by these words:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

Let there be peace among us and let us and let us not be instruments of our own or anyone else’s oppression. Amen.

Service for the Feast of St. Cecilia
Sermon Preached in the Chapel of St. Mary’s College, Durham University, UK
22 November 2005

Romans 12:2-8
Luke 4:16-24

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

It was the end of a long working day in a small hospital on the outskirts of the city. The doctor was was sitting at his desk finishing off the last bits of paperwork when he looked up to see a woman coming in with her two boys. One was thirteen years old, the other was three, and both were sick. He quickly examined both children and found that the illnesses, though serious, were easily treatable. He gave the woman the prescriptions she needed and sent her on her way. A few months later he saw the woman again and asked how her children were doing. She got a sad, far-away look in her eyes and quietly told him that the older boy was doing well but the younger one was dead. She had only been able to afford the medicine for one child and had made the impossibly painful choice to give it to the older boy. She then had to watch her younger son die.

In our gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus quotes the following words from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

After reading this passage in the temple, Jesus said to the people gathered there: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. His comment of course relates in part to the opening lines of the Isaiah passage describing his spirit-filled call from God, but it also relates to the rest of the passage. Much of what is described will make up elements of Jesus’ ministry as he preaches and teaches: bringing the good news to the poor and those on the margins of society, literally giving sight to the blind, and releasing those held captive or oppressed by sin or other afflictions. However, the final point in the passage bears further study and is what I would like to discuss with you this evening.

The year of the Lord’s favor described here was the Jubilee Year in the Jewish religious calendar that occurred every fifty years and involved, according to legislation in the Book of Leviticus, three things: rest of the soil, the return of landed property to its original owner who had been driven by poverty to sell it, and the freeing of any Israelites who, because of poverty or another reason, had become slaves of other Jews. This ongoing cycle tried to guarantee that wealth and land would never be accumulated by only a very few people, made it impossible for anyone to be born into unending poverty or slavery, and gave anyone who had encountered hardship or failure the opportunity to start over again. In other words, the goal of these policies was to try and keep the entire nation of Israel on an equal footing, with no one person, family, or social class dominating the society.

However, with these words, Jesus is saying to all those present in the temple, and to us here today, that with his incarnation God is proclaiming that the year of the Lord’s favor will be with the human race for the rest of time or, as the Orthodox often put it, unto ages of ages. This is not a cycle of constantly reoccurring years as in the Jewish tradition, but a complete and utter recreation of the entire cosmos. God has taken a world broken by human sin where people had to be reminded to care for those who were in need by a legal provision and remade it into something far greater than it could ever have been before. In this new creation, in the new Jerusalem that is coming into the world in Jesus, the new commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself, and your new neighbor is every other human being.

The problem is, though, that we most certainly do not find ourselves living in the eternal year of the Lord’s favor. Our world is crippled by human weakness and suffering, across a whole range of global-scale problems that lead to situations like the terrible choice made by the mother I described earlier. Her story was adapted from a text by Adebayo Adedeji, a former Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations, and describes a situation he encountered in Zambia, a country in Africa with enormous social and economic problems, and where almost half of the population has HIV/AIDS.

The specific issue that I would like to bring to your attention today is third world debt, one of the main working points of the Make Poverty History campaign. Now, I can see you rolling your eyes as I mention debt relief, and I know that it is a topic which has been covered so extensively by the media and by politicians that it has lost a lot of its energy as a focus for action. However, I believe with absolute conviction that it is an issue that must still challenge us and that, as Christians, we have a moral obligation to continue to campaign vigorously to get these debts forgiven. There are still numerous countries that are having to pay between 20-25% of their annual incomes towards debt servicing instead of towards education or health care and this situation is unacceptable in the eternal year of the Lord’s favor.

The governments and institutions that are creditors for these debts would be very happy for us to say that we are sick of the endless discussion and would be pleased just to let the issue go, but there are still very serious issues to be addressed. One profound and terrible example of the effect of debt on poor countries is the crisis that occurred in Argentina in 2001 when the economy of that country collapsed, leading to widespread unemployment and starvation among the populace, and eventually to rioting and violence. The International Monetary Fund offered a $20 billion bail out loan, but as British journalist Greg Palast reported: “Argentina owed $128 billion in debt [in mid 2001]. Normal interest plus the premium amounted to $27 billion a year. In other words, Argentina’s people didn’t net one penny from the $20 billion in ‘bailout’ loans. The debt grew, but none of the money escaped New York, where it lingered to pay interest to U.S. creditors holding the bonds.”

Now I mentioned the Make Poverty History campaign earlier, and I want to return to it now. I am proud to be a supporter of the campaign, and I believe that its goals are laudable. However, one of the problems that I see with it is that of the people that I talk to who go around wearing white wristbands, many of them, at best, have only a limited idea what the main goals of the campaign are and, at worst, are wearing the wristbands as a fashion accessory or because of peer pressure. Just so you know, the three main points of Make Poverty History are: Trade Justice, Drop The Debt, and More & Better Aid.

In our lesson from Romans we are told that we are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may discern the will of God, that is, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This renewed mind is able, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, to think for itself what will please God instead of being darkened by the deceitfulness of sin. Please do not buy a white wristband or join the Make Poverty History campaign or even talk to your friends and families about reliving third world debt simply because you think that I have told you to in this sermon. It should be the work of the Spirit within you that is urging you on, not my words.

And this means that you, and I, have serious work to do before we take up this call to action. My preparation for this sermon led me to realize that I do not know nearly as much about these issues as I should to be able to talk about them with any real conviction, and I certainly have not experienced anything close to the situation of the distressed woman whose story I told at the beginning.

Since today is St. Cecilia’s day and she is, among other things, the patron of church music, I would like to conclude by reading one of the great hymns of the church. This is a text that we hear frequently, perhaps so frequently that we forget how radical and challenging it really is. It is the great song that Mary sang upon learning that she was to be the mother of God’s only son, Jesus Christ. Remember that Mary herself was a peasant, a person of no great account in the world, and neither was her son at his birth. Listen especially to the middle part of the song, and as Advent approaches, I would ask you to let the Holy Spirit who is moving within you renew your mind by these words:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

Let there be peace among us and let us and let us not be instruments of our own or anyone else’s oppression. Amen.