Luke 19 - The Things that Make for Peace - a reflection for Remembrance Sunday

One was made by my father.  Another is a corn dolly.  Another comes from Rwanda.  Another I made myself from clay.  Another is painted on glass.  Another was given me by Maurice!

Each of the crosses on the window sill of my study has a particular personal association for me.

And one of those crosses I have brought along for this evening service on Remembrance Sunday.

It’s a cross of nails.

It’s wonderful how things happen when you read the Bible.  There’s still time to sign up for Fresh from the Word – those Bible reading notes I am inviting people to join me in using next year.

We started to read through Luke’s gospel on the first Sunday of the year, Sunday, 4^th January.  We got half way through by the time my sabbatical began.  We got going again at the beginning of September.  And this evening we reach Luke 19.  It’s Remembrance Sunday.  And I for one found it quite moving when I realised that today in our reading of Luke’s Gospel we get to the end of that long, long journey Jesus has been making ever since Luke 9, the journey to Jerusalem.

It was on the way into the city of Jericho that Jesus had asked that telling question of the blind man reduced to begging on the streets: What do you want me to do for you?”  And the blind man regained his sight, and followed Jesus, glorifying God; and all the people when they saw it, praised God.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it, when Zacchaeus, a chief tax-collector climbed a tree to see Jesus as he passed by.  To his surprise and to the shock of the by-standers Jesus stopped and ended up eating a meal with this despised collaborator with the  Roman authorities.  By the end of that day Jesus could say, ^Today salvation has come to this house,”  It was as if through Jesus Zacchaeus the outcast was restored to the bosom of the family, “-because”, said Jesus,  “he too is a son of Abraham.”

This was yet another instance of the Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of grace transforming people’s lives - it’s not long since we read chapter 15 with its three stories that are nothing less than the Gospel within the gospel – the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son or rather those stories that tell of God the good shephered, the seeking woman, and the waiting father.

The story of Zaccaheus is yet another moment when that life-changing gospel of grace means the world to the most unexpected of people as Jesus says, “For the Son of Man came to seek out and tyo save the lost.”

But make no mistake, says Jesus, this is no cheap grace – following in the footsteps of Jesus involves giving your all.

There’s one last story for the journey.

The parable of the pounds.

A dark, disturbing, challenging story.

After he said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem … and he came near to Bethphage and Bethany.

AT the outset he had taken on the mantle of John the Baptist, someone who had given new life to the ancient tradition of the prophets and had not feared to speak truth to power and hold the authorities to account.  Now Jesus makes what is nothing less than a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, drawing on the insights of the Proiphet Zechariah and riding on of all things a donkey.

He comes as the one called to rule … but in a way quite different from anything the people might expect and anything they had experienced under the Romans and the Herodian Dynasty.

Luke 19:28-44

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’ So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

‘Blessed is the king

   who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven,

   and glory in the highest heaven!’

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

Then as now Jerusalem was torn apart by the threat of conflict.  There is a moment as you enter into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives that you round a corner and there it is before you.

This is one of those rare occasions when Jesus weeps.

And what moves Jesus to tears is what the people of Jerusalem had failed to see.

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

This is a moment in time from long ago.  Within forty years it came to pass.  And as Luke was bringing together his record of the Good News of Jesus he knew only too well way the residents of that city had not followed the way of Jesus on the donkey but had taken to the war horse and taken arms against the Roman occupying force overthrowing them as they thought, only to find that the Romans in AD 70 laid waste to the city they so loved and destroyed the temple.

. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

As Luke knew full well, they had missed the moment and did not recognise the time of their visitation from God in Jesus’ triumphal entry

This is indeed a moment in time from long ago, a tragic moment.

But it is also something that resonates down through the ages.

On Remembrance Sunday we think of the horrors of war, the conflicts our nation has been caught up in over the last century, the conflicts our nation is involved in as this century begins.

You cannot help but feel that Jesus when he looks on Jerusalem today weeps those same tears.

When he sees the mess in a world of conflict he weeps those same tears.

‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

And what of us this Remembrance Sunday evening.  Do we recognise the things that make for peace … or are they hidden from our eyes too.

I had forgotten how much colder it is up north than it is down here and so when I got off the train in York a month or so ago I was cold, in spite of the fact it was as sunny there as it had been here when I had got on the train.

I very much hope it won’t be the last visit I make to York as the process is now well under way to transfer the students on our Congregational Federation Integrated Course to York St John University.

This time I took the opportunity to visit the York Museum where I stood in front of the very first geological map of Great Britain in the 200^th anniversary year – but that’s another story.

I went to matins at 7-30 in York Minster and found it moving to be in that ancient place of worship before any of the tourists arrived.

I didn’t spot the ancient church of St Martin’s in Coney Street.  The story of that church is told in the current issue of Magnet, a stimulating magazine a number of people subscribe to.  Have a word with Felicity if you would like to give it a try!

“the splendid medieval window that greets you on the north wall tells the story of St Martin of Tours, a sosldier who chose instead to become a ‘soldier of Christ’.  His feast day is 11^th November – Remembrance Day.  Carved into the stonework at the foot of the window we read the words

1939 – 1945

Father Forgive

Outside is a paved garden “created from the ruins of the nave.  Scorched pillars and a large cross are stark reminders of the loss and wastage of war but the restored interior is a visible symbol that after death and destruction, rebirth and resurrection are possible.

“The church, Ruth Sillar explains in her article, “was once much bigger but it was severely damaged during a major bombing raid in the early hours of 29^th April 1942, when over one hundred York citizens lost their lives.”

There is something remarkable about the book of remembrance that’s located near the St Martin’s window.  It is remarkable for including something that is rarely seen on war memorials and yet something that should give us pause for thought.

The book of remembrance contains all the names of those people of York who died … and now it also contains the names of the German aircrew who also died that night.

There is a wonderful pipe organ in the church.

It was a gift of the German government and German Evangelical Church.

St Martin’s in York was restored in 1968 and since then it has been a church “with a special dedication to peace and reconciliation.”

In 2012, on the 70^th Anniversary of the bombing, St Martin’s became a partner in Coventry Cathedral’s Community of the Cross of Nails.

Its symbol is that cross of nails that was swiftly put together in the nave of the ruined Coventry cathedral and still stands there on the altar in those ruins.

It was from Coventry cathedral that I acquired my cross of nails.

On Remembrance Sunday maybe it’s important for us to reflect on what it takes to recognise the things that make for peace.

Luke’s trravelling companion, Paul, was one had an eye to see the things that make for peace.  It is the love of Christ that urges us on, Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians.  How important it is not to regard anyone from a human point of view.  If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

There’s a way of looking at the world that will help us to recognise the tghings that make for peace.  It is the way of looking at the world we have when we seek to look at the world through the eyes of Jesus.

All this is from God whop reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

That’s to say, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.  So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.

How important it is therefore, that we look at a world of conflict through the yes of Jesus and recognise the things that make for peace.

“There are now more than 160 partners in the Community of the Cross of Nails – they reach throughout the world – I have visited churches in London, in Berlin, in Dresden that are part of that partnership.

Each has its own cross of nails and together they share a commitment to work and to pray for peace, justice and reconciliation.

In the Magnet Article Ruth Sillar quotes the commitment they make.

These words we should perhaps take to heart on Remembrance Sunday evening as we seek to see with the eyes of Jesus and recognise the things that make for peace.

They have a shared commitment to pray for peace, justice and reconciliation through

healing the wounds of history,

1learning to live with difference and celebrate diversity

Building a culture of peace.

As Ruth Sillars observes – that’s not easy.

Maybe that’s why it is good to come back to another quotation from Paul and to that quotation from Jesus that stands under the St Martin window in York.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That is why that prayer is so important for all of us to use

Father forgive

After all, we are all in need of forgiveness.

There are all sorts of activities in that community of the Cross of Nails, but Ruth Sillars suggests it all becomes a reality “when individuals meet, friendships form and stories are shared.”   “So perhaps this should always be the starting point in our search for peace and reconciliation: the willingness to listen to one another.

The last section of this sermon on the church of St Martin’s in York reproduces the article Father Forgive in the current issue of Magnet No 108 Winter 2015 page 10.