“PROMISES,
PROMISES!”
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A sermon preached Readings: Dt 34:1-12; Mt 22:34-40 |
Deut 34:1,4a “Then leaving the
plains of Moab,
Moses went up Mount Nebo,
the peak of Pisgah opposite Jericho,
and the Lord showed him the whole
country….
And the LORD said to him,
‘This is the land I promised on oath
to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
saying, I will give it to your descendants’…..”
For
many weeks now our Lectionary passages
have followed Moses through his desert wanderings.
Now today at last we reach the end of Moses’ earthly life -
He climbs Mt Pisgah/Nebo and sees the Promised Land…
After 40 years in the wilderness,
God has kept his promises to his people –
there before them is the Land of milk and honey…
In
Christian thought, the journey of Israel across the desert
has become a potent symbol of our earthly pilgrimage –
the way may often be hard and rough, but God goes with us.
And
though like Moses
we may not enter the Promised Land this side of death,
we are (as the old chorus has it) standing on the promises of God –
promises which transcend mere physical death –
“When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside –
death of death & hell’s destruction
land me safe on Canaan’s side”
Many of you will have heard this week
of the death of our friend Allan Cross
whose funeral will be here on Friday.
We think too this week of John and Valerie Carne
preparing for the funeral of John’s mother in Cornwall.
And many of you will think of loved ones
whose loss is still close to your heart….
And
in every Christian funeral service
we stand looking over Jordan, to the promised land –
and we say, like Moses,
my earthly grave may be this side of Jordan,
but in God I trust and in the next world if not this one,
I will cross Jordan and reach home.
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God’s
promises are never broken –
sadly that is not true of human promises.
We still live in the desert of death
under the shadow of human sin and faithlessness
I recall reading a magazine article
about so called “sink estates”
built outside our big cities in the 60s and 70s
to re-house those moved out of inner city slums –
many proved to be social disasters –
the title of the article over a picture of graffiti and debris?
“New Jerusalem gone
wrong?”
As
events in Birmingham have reminded us overnight,
our efforts to build the Promised Land here and now
so often seem to founder.
There
is a passage in Ulysses
in which Stephen Dedalus imagines himself
standing with Moses on Mount Nebo
looking over the Promised Land –
but the Promised Land is Ireland
and the English have blighted its promise and beauty:
“Look forth now, my people, upon the land of
behest,
even from Horeb and from Nebo and from Pisgah …
unto a land flowing with milk and money.
But thou hast suckled me with a bitter milk: ….
And thou hast left me alone for ever
in the dark ways of my bitterness:
and with a kiss of ashes hast thou kissed my mouth…”
[James Joyce, Ulysses
Episode 14 Oxen of the Sun]
Oh
that in this world as well as the next one
we might know the promised land,
and that we could enjoy and share the milk and the honey
in this One World –
Remember the words of the Psalmist –
“This poor man cried to the Lord and the Lord heard him” –
the question is,
do we hear the cry of the poor in the Lord’s name?
We have a collection after this service
for the South Asian Earthquake appeal.
We think of those who, as we speak,
are preparing for the onslaught of the mountain winter
under makeshift tents in Pakistan and India.
Please give generously – this is a simple opportunity to offer
milk and honey and food and shelter
to those struggling in the desert wastes, hoping for a promised land.
This
week we have been remembering Lord Nelson –
and I hope Nelson fans will forgive me if I refer here
not to the naval genius of the Nile or Trafalgar,
but rather to less flattering events in the Bay of Naples.
In 1798 Nelson and his fleet reached
Naples,
where he found the forces of his ally the King of the Two Sicilies
besieging some hill forts
occupied by French troops and Neapolitan rebels.
A stalemate had been reached, and so an amnesty was agreed.
Nelson promised his French and rebel enemies safe
passage
if they made their way to boats in the harbour.
When they had left the safety of their forts and embarked on the boats,
Nelson (encouraged by Lady Hamilton)
handed them all over to the opposing Sicilian forces –
as a result of which large numbers were brutally hanged and beheaded.
So much for Nelson’s promise of safe passage.
Sadly even our national heroes can promise life and deliver death….
This
is the start of One World Week.
We think of the promises we make
to the poor and marginalised of our one world –
and how often we find it politically expedient
to forget our promises to the needy.
In
a recent speech about the Millennium Goals,
Gordon
Brown talked about our promises:
“Despite the promise of every world
leader, every government,
every international authority that by 2015
we would achieve primary education for all,
a two-thirds fall in infant mortality
and a halving of global poverty,
at best on present progress in sub Saharan Africa:
·
primary education for all will be delivered
not as the millennium development goals solemnly promised
in 2015 but 2130 -
that is 115 years late; ·
·
the halving of poverty
not as the richest countries promised
by 2015 but by 2150 -
that is 135 years late;
·
and the elimination of avoidable infant deaths
not as we the richest nations promised
by 2015 but by 2165 -
that is 150 years late.”
Lord
Nelson was not the only one to renege on his promises.
We
might as well take the poor of the world
and hand them over to the executioners –
our promises of a better world so often mean so little…
Whilst Nelson was preparing to sail to Cape Trafalgar
the presses were turning out copies of William Blake’s new poem -
“I will
not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land”
[Blake, Jerusalem, 1804]
As
Christians we have in the words of the funeral service
“sure and certain hope of the
resurrection to eternal life
through our Lord Jesus Christ
to whom be the glory for ever and ever” -
But alongside that future hope
is the permanent challenge to make that hope a present reality
in our green & pleasant land, in our one world.
You remember Martin Luther King’s great
speech
on the night before he died?
How he spoke of standing alongside Moses
looking over Jordan and said:
”He's allowed me to go up to the
mountain.
And I've looked over.
And I've seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight,
that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.
And I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
You
and I too – God invites us to stand on the Mountain Top
and look over Jordan.
So
let us thank God for all the Saints who have gone before us –
and are now safe home over Jordan.
Meanwhile
here below,
we think of those still struggling on their desert pilgrimage,
be it in sub Sarahan Africa,
or the Kashmiri mountains,
or amidst the Satanic mills of Britain and Ireland –
O
Lord, show us a sight
of that land flowing with milk and honey
assuredly promised to all your children at the end of time -
and in the power of your Spirit
help us work to fulfil your promises
here and now in the One World of yours.