“mind the gap”
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A Sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church,
Exeter, by the Minister, Readings: |
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Mind the Gap – Living in a Fractured Society
Anyone who has used the London tube will be familiar
with the endlessly repeated announcement
at various tube stations – Mind the Gap –
alerting you to the distance between the carriage and the platform –
a potential danger if you stumble between the two.
Today marks the start of One World Week,
and this year’s theme is “Mind the Gap”
We are invited to think about the gaps,
indeed the yawning chasms, which divide parts of our one world.
There is a great gap between the winners and losers
in our world –
the poor are excluded not so much by a small gap
as by a mediaeval style moat beyond which they may not approach.
And as politicians debate the niqab,
different groups seem to be adopting
increasingly entrenched positions within our society.
And “Entrenched” is another image with military overtones,
referring to World War I trenches,
the 20th C equivalent of the moat and castle.
At international level,
the poor nations are denied access
to the rich men’s club and his markets,
whilst poor migrant workers and refugees
are refused entry at the rich border crossing.
At national level,
the economic gap between the rich and the poor
(Disraeli’s two nations) shows no sign of closing,
whilst only today the Commission for Racial Equality
is warning of
increased polarisation within our society
along racial and creedal lines,
whilst another report says adults in this country
(unlike those on the continent)
are losing touch with
teenagers
and are no longer interacting meaningfully with them.
New fault lines seem to be opening up in our
society.
In Biblical terms, the divisions in our one world and nation
often mirror those of the New Testament world,
where Jews and Samaritans would not speak to each other
and Lazarus was left begging at Dives gateway.
The Church – bridging the Gap?
The Church of course is called to exemplify another
way –
we are called not merely not merely to mind the gap,
but to bridge it, to fill in the moat and the trench,
and make all welcome, rich or poor, winners or losers, weak or powerful –
all those who fear or mistrust or victimize each other.
It doesn’t always work like that –
The Church can all too easily reflect or even enforce social divisions
rather than challenge or destroy them.
There is a tombstone in
Kingsbridge,
now apparently mounted on a wall,
but originally on the floor of the Church just by the doorway.
It is in memory of the local gravedigger, Bone Phillip,
who died in 1793 aged 63,
and who was evidently buried just inside the Church doorway.
Which explains the inscription which reads as follows:
“Here
lie I at the chancel door;
Here lie I
because I’m poor.
The farther in the more you’ll pay;
Here lie I as warm as they.”
Which is good for a smile 200 years on –
not least because Bone Phillip is now doubtless
enjoying the feast of the Kingdom with the one
who ate and drank with publicans and sinners and gravediggers
and had no time for social distinctions or hierarchies of wealth.
But
joking aside, there is a challenge for the Church here on earth -
Do we turn a blind eye to the social divisions of modern economics,
or indeed tacitly support the socio-economic inequalities
of our trading and social systems?
Mind the Gap – between words
and actions
We may say
the right things, but do we back them up with actions?
This
year’s One World Week theme
encourages us to look at the gap between the rich and the poor,
but also to look at the gap between words and actions.
I saw an old banger of a car the other day
chugging along at about 20 m.p.h.
And in the back windscreen there was a sticker
with the following message – “Don’t honk – Push!”
All too
easy to sound off about things –
maybe we need to narrow the gap between words and actions.
This story is told from the days of Soviet Russia.
A Communist Village Board meets to consider the following agenda:
1.
the
construction of a new road
2.
the
building of a new barn
3.
the
building of communism
An elder comments:
“Comrades, you know perfectly well that
we don’t have any funds to construct a new road,
and we don’t have wood to build a new barn.
Consequently I move that we move straight
to item three on the agenda.”
(Rosen and Widgery,
The Chatto Book of Dissent, Chatto
and Windus 1991 p.400)
And for
Communist ideal and the classless society,
read
the Kingdom of God –
and
for Communist Committee read Church meeting
and how often are we tempted to settle
for trite and easy words about our ultimate vision,
without taking on board what they mean in terms of down to earth action?
In Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel “Sylvia’s Lovers”
Daniel Robson is sent for trial at York for inciting a riot
against the press gang at Monkshaven.
His nephew goes to the hearing,
and there he hears the clergyman preach the traditional assize sermon.
He writes to Sylvia
“The sermon was grand. The text was Zechariah vii.9
‘Execute true judgement and show
mercy’……..
the clergyman said so much in it about mercy and
forgiveness,
I think they cannot fail to be lenient in this assize…”
Of course they are not lenient, and Robson hangs.
These were just words in a sermon –
not anything to be acted upon….
If we are
to mind the gap
between the rich and the poor, between the winners and the losers,
and between all the entrenched and vested interests in our society,
we also need to mind the gap between easy words and costly actions.
Mind the Gap – Being the
Body of Christ
And in so
doing we are called to follow in Christ’s footsteps.
·
For
Christ is the Word of God incarnate, the word made flesh.
He does not simply speak God’s word, he is God’s word –
he does not merely proclaim the Gospel in words,
he also proclaims it in his life, his actions, his very being..
We are called to be the Body of Christ –
the Word incarnate for our generation –
and the Word is love and life and justice
and this is the word we are called to incarnate in our lives.
·
And
because Christ lives out that Gospel word,
he wines and dines with sinners and tax collectors
and doubtless grave diggers too -
he closes the gap entirely between the rich and the poor,
the respectable and the disreputable, the saints and the sinners,
the young and the old, those of one religious persuasion or another.
So here
today we come to the Lord’s table –
where all are welcome– Come sinners to the Gospel feast.
We all have a place here, poor miserable sinners though we be.
There is no gap, no moat, no trench here
dividing God’s children from his presence.
The veil of the temple has been ripped down –
the sacred and the secular are one –
we may enter the Holy of Holies.
When we
get on the tube train the message says “Mind the Gap”
So let us
follow the example of our Lord.
Let’s not just mind the gap, lets bridge it, destroy it -
May we welcome as we are welcomed,
May we love as we are loved
that in his name we may share the journey of life
with all our sisters and brothers
ORDER OF SERVICE
Hymn HAP 327 “Spirit divine”
Prayers
Leader: We have come together
People: With our longing, with our faith, with our doubts
Leader: We have come together
People: Seeking the depths of faith in praise and prayer
Leader: We have come together
People To share, to learn, to grow in unity and in the love of God
Leader: Let us be silent before the face of God
Leader We belong together
People Like members in one body
Leader When there is dissension within the body
People Lord have mercy on us
Leader If one member suffers
People All suffer together with it
Leader When we lack compassion
People Lord, have mercy on us
Leader If one member is honoured
People All rejoice together with it
Leader When we lack thankfulness and joy
People Lord have mercy on us
Leader We belong together
People Like members in one body
Leader: O Lord, have mercy on our Church
People: O Lord, have mercy on your
world
Leader In Christ we are forgiven.
As
we are forgiven, may we forgive others
As
we are restored, may we restore others
As
we are reconciled with God, may we be reconciled with others
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Readings: Ephesians
4:1-6, Matthew 9:9-13
Hymn HAP 783 “Thy
Kingdom come, O God”
Sermon “Mind the Gap”
Hymn SOF
120 “From heaven you came”
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer
Peace
Offertory
Hymn NHAWS 83 “From many grains once scattered far and wide”
Holy Communion (MWB p. 215)
Hymn HAP 648
“The day thou gavest”
Blessing
(Opening Prayers from Opening
Service of the Selly Oak Centre for Study and Action, 2002)