Sermon for Sunday 30th August 2009

The reports following the death of Edward Kennedy this week were marked by the extraordinarily contrasting dimensions to his life. Part of a political dynasty of huge influence, he has been hailed by global leaders as a politician of huge influence in the Senate and beyond. Although from one of the most privileged families in America, he championed the poor and marginalised. Abroad he has been credited with persuading a reluctant US administration to recognise Gerry Adams, paving the way to the eventually successful Northern Ireland peace process. But for all this his personal life was a catastrophe.

It is quite likely he would have gained the presidential nomination had he not driven a car over a bridge in Chappaquiddick, not reporting the accident or the death of his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. The events overshadowed his life, as did his reputation for drinking and womanising.

It is easy for us to be critical of Kennedy – we do not live such dissolute lives. But in Mark Jesus teaches that evil things – things that are against the will of God – come from within the human heart. He says “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” The pejorative tone of his long list of evil intentions has a puritanical zeal which can make us uncomfortable. Who among us has not at some time or another been guilty of deceit, envy, pride or folly?

Jesus was speaking in the context of comments on the Jewish rituals of food he was reminding the devout and strict Pharisees that ultimately it was not their observance of the minutiae of the Jewish Law that mattered. However perfect they might outwardly appear in their keeping to the rules of their faith, it was worth nothing if in their hearts they abandoned God’s commandments, God’s rule of love. Only if our heart is with God can we avoid constantly disappointing ourselves with our behaviour.

Most of us find it only too hard to get beyond focussing on our human weaknesses to hold a generally right relationship with God. If we have God in our hearts, then our actions will naturally be ruled by love. Love will become the rule for us rather than self gratification. St Therese of Lisieux wrote "What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love." Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love.

Last Friday the church was commemorating another saint - Augustine of Hippo. Augustine (not to be confused with Augustine of Canterbury, who was named after him). Born in 354, he has been described as having the greatest and most influential mind of the Christian church throughout its long history. But his early life had many of the characteristics that Jesus warns of in Mark. Had he been alive he might have had some empathy with Edward Kennedy. As a young man Augustine was a womaniser himself. He is credited with the quote "O Lord, Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet". He recognized that it was a matter of willpower that he was lacking – he knew what was right, but could not do it.

But aged 34 Augustine had a dramatic conversion. He had been told by an old friend about the monastic movement - men and women who had given up power, the company of the opposite sex and possessions for God. In his Confessions, an account he wrote of his early life and conversion, Augustine describes how he went out into a garden battling with his weak will. He heard a child singing “Take up and read; take up and read”. He interpreted this as a call to open the bible and read the first passage that was before him. The book opened at Romans 13 and he read about forsaking wild living and putting on Jesus Christ.

Augustine saw himself being lifted by the grace of Jesus Christ from the passions he could not control. His response was to take up a life of monastic celibacy. However he remained ever conscious that the process could never be perfected. He knew he still needed a continual process of confession to God and being lifted up by Christ.

The bible teaches that we need to take one step further than simply renouncing temptation as we all face the battle of our own wills. Although we know the right way, rather than letting God take over, we often just present to the world what we think it wants to see. Time magazine named Edward Kennedy as one of the best senators ever. His brother President John F Kennedy also presented to the world a picture of family values with his beautiful wife Jackie at this side and their children. But more recent revelations about his White House years have revealed him as a womaniser and a risk taker. For all the good that the Kennedys achieved, their public personas masked personal lives where they failed and hurt people close to them.

The Epistle of James urges the reader ‘be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’. This complements the theme of Jesus’ teaching to the Pharisees who had rounded on him for not observing their strict rituals. What value, James implied, is there in observing ritual if we do not attempt to mirror the goodness of God. ‘Welcome the implanted word that has the power to save your souls’ says the letter of James.

James then goes on to say that those who deceive themselves are like those who look in a mirror, see themselves, and then immediately forget what they look like. In the mirror we might glimpse how we look without having any thought for how we behave and how others perceive us. To gain the strength to be both hearers and doers of the word, we need to be honest and know ourselves in the first place. It means we must lay out before God the reality of who we are and how we behave. And then seek his transforming love. Alongside being honest and knowing ourselves, we must constantly seek to know God. The more time we spend with God, the more we begin to reflect his love. In time we won’t have to exercise willpower to act with love and charity, because love and charity can become what we are.

At the heart of Augustine’s writing, learnt from deep personal experience, is that if we attempt to live our lives reliant simply on our own strength of will we are unlikely to come close to living as God intends. Our actions will be good if the heart they spring from is aligned with God and full of love. As St. Therese put it, ‘What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.’

©Robert Jenkins August 2009