“The Bells of St Clements”
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A sermon preached at the
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“And the King will
reply,
‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers,
you did for me” (Mt 25:40)
Those of
you who follow closely the calendar of Saints’ Days
may possibly know that today is the Feast Day for St Clement.
Clement
was one of the first Bishops of Rome,
and hence one of the earliest successors of St Peter as Pope -
though this was at a time before the Primacy of Rome
over other places was widely accepted.
Clement
is best known to Church historians
for his Letter to the Corinthians,
part of which we heard read as a lesson this evening.
It was actually written in about AD 96,
at about the same time as the latest parts of the NT -
but when the Early Church came to decide what to put in the NT,
Revelation and Hebrews etc made it, but Clement missed the cut.
Whilst it
doesn’t have the same status as the Biblical books,
it is nevertheless a valuable document.
But I
have to say that if you asked
the average person on the Clapham omnibus
what they knew about St Clement,
they would probably quote not a 1st Century epistle
but a 17th Century Nursery Rhyme -
Oranges and lemons Say the bells of St Clements
You owe me five farthings Say the bells
of St Martins
When will you pay me? Say the bells of
Old Bailey
When I grow rich Say
the bells of Shoreditch
When will that be? Say the bells of
Stepney
I'm sure I don't know Says the great
bell at Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head…
All the
bells referred to are in London -
and St Clements Eastcheap or St Clement Danes in the
Strand
(both dedicated to St Clement of Rome)
both lay claim to be the “Bells of St Clements” -
which (they would have us believe)
were rung when a cargo of Mediterranean oranges and lemons
were unloaded at nearby Thames wharves en route to Covent Garden.
Be that
as it may,
it is surely a good thing to remember St Clement,
not just because it is his feast day,
but because this Sunday (the Sunday before Advent)
is the Sunday when we think about Christ the King -
Christ’s Heavenly rule over all creation, Christ as King of Kings.
Remember
- Clement lived in a Rome
which demanded that allegiance to Caesar
took precedence over loyalty to Christ.
For Clement, accepting Christ as King
was no mere theological nicety - it was a matter of life and death.
When Clement
refused to accept the supremacy of Caesar,
he was (according to tradition) tied to a ship’s anchor and thrown overboard -
there to drown as a martyr to his faith.
When we
hear the bells of St Clements,
we remember a Saint who was prepared to go to his death
rather than deny his ultimate allegiance to Christ as King.
What
about us?
We may not be tempted or required to bow before Caesar instead of Christ -
But when offered Christ or money,
Christ or a comfortable life,
Christ or Fame and Fortune -
who rules our life?
In the
passage we read today,
Clement spells out something of what it means
to give one’s allegiance to Christ the King.
To serve God cannot be disentangled from serving our neighbour.
It means to serve and respect each other.
§
The
wise should show wisdom in deed as well as word;
§
the
strong should not despise the weak,
§
and the rich should provide for the poor.
And if
you want that same message from the Canon of Scripture,
you have only to turn to today’s Gospel
which makes it crystal clear that serving the King of Kings
and serving the needy cannot be separated:
“And the King will reply,
‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers,
you did for me” (Mt 25:40)
It is a
lesson which the Christian world
has been notoriously slow to learn over 2000 years.
The
original “Oranges and Lemons” seems to relate
to debtors going from Newgate to Tyburn
for public execution.
When I was poor and in prison, did you care for me -
says Christ the King in Matthew 25.
Did you visit and care for me in Newgate,
or did you or ring the bell for my execution
and cheer and shout as the procession passed by
en route to the Tyburn gallows?
When poet
John Donne died,
he left money for the upkeep of “the great bell of Bow”
And I
wonder whether that was the bell he was thinking of
when he wrote his famous words -
No man is an island, entire of itself….
Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in
mankind.
Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
I wonder
- do we stand aside and let others suffer and die -
do we stand (whether silent or cheering) on the pavement watching -
or do we take up our cross alongside our King
and walk the way of suffering alongside the needy
and the desperate and the dying?
In the aftermath of the 1926 General Strike -
which took such a toll on the working men of Welsh mines -
Idris Davies wrote a poem - not about the bells of
London,
but the bells of the Welsh valleys - later sung by
Pete Seeger :
Oh what will you give me Say the sad bells of
Rhymney
Is there hope for the future Say the brown bells of Merthyr
Who made the mine owner Say the black bells of Rhondda
And who robbed the miner Say the grim bells of Blaenau
They will plunder willy-nilly Say the bells of
Caerphilly
They have fangs, they have teeth Shout the loud bells
of Neath
Even God is uneasy Say the moist bells of Swansea
And what will you give me Say the sad bells of Rhymney
Throw the vandals in court Say
the bells of Newport
All would be well if if if if if if
Say the green bells of Cardiff
Why so worried, sisters, why Sang the silver bells of Wye
And what will you give me Say the sad bells of Rhymney
Jesus (like
the prophets before him)
constantly railed against spiritual hypocrisy -
against those who did the religious bit with hymns and prayers,
with bell book and candle, yet at the same time ignored the poor and the needy.
The
silver bells of the green and rural Wye Valley represent the rich and
comfortable -
they alone see no cause to worry.
And Jesus says
“Did you not see me naked and hungry and covered in coal dust?”
and the rich comfortable say
“When Lord, did we see anything amiss, anyone to concern us?”
I said,
"Let me walk in the fields."
He said, "No, walk in the town."
I said, "There are no flowers there."
He said, "No flowers, but a crown."
(George MacDonald)
That is
the challenge of the Gospel -
a challenge we will have to face on judgement day.
When
Christ the King says to each of us
“Where were you
when I was in the gutter, in prison, on the scaffold?
Where
were you when I needed you?”
And I
fear we will have to answer -
“Forgive us Lord -
So often we did not see you, we ignored you.
We deserve to be cast out from your sight.”
On that
day may God have mercy on our souls.
May he
judge us not by our deeds but by his love.
For if
Christ the King really came to find and save sinners
in the gutter and in the mud,
then maybe, just maybe,
when the bells of judgement ring,
his love may yet stretch to cover even my sins!
Order of Service
Hymn 28 “O Worship the King”
Prayers (Methodist Worship Book p. 211)
Reading: First
Letter of Clement to the Corinthians, ch. 38
Let our whole body, then,
be preserved in Christ Jesus; and let every one be
subject to his neighbour, according to the special gift bestowed
upon him. Let the strong not despise
the weak, and let the weak show respect unto the strong. Let the rich man provide for the wants of the
poor; and let the poor man bless God, because He has given him one by whom his
need may be supplied. Let the wise man
display his wisdom, not by [mere] words, but through good deeds. Let the humble not bear testimony to himself,
but leave witness to be borne to him by another. Let him that is pure in the flesh not grow
proud of it, and boast, knowing that it was another who bestowed on
him the gift of continence. Let us
consider, then, brethren, of what matter we were made - who and what manner of
beings we came into the world, as it were out of a sepulchre, and from utter
darkness. He who made us
and fashioned us, having prepared His bountiful gifts for us before we were
born, introduced us into His world. Since,
therefore, we receive all these things from Him, we
ought for everything to give Him thanks; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Reading: Mt 25:31-40 (p.995)
Hymn 764
“Christ from whom all blessings flow”
Sermon:
“The Bells of St Clements”
Hymn 274
“Saviour blessed Saviour”
Prayers of Intercession (MWB p. 214)
Peace
Offertory
Hymn 69
“The King of Love”
Holy Communion (MWB p, 215)
Hymn 648 “The day thou gavest”
Blessing