Sermon: Simon and Jude: passionate discipleship

Ephesians 2:19-end; John 15:17-end

Durham Cathedral Holy Eucharist. St Simon and St Jude. 28^th October 2007

The Cathedral Chapter has been economical with names for a while; in the recent past we've had a heavy representation of Davids, Stephens and Canons Brown and we've always managed to know who we are talking about by the simple addition of a second name. But a couple of months ago the Cathedral got itself into a more difficult situation: a new member of staff was appointed in the Chapter Office and the result is that in an office of less than twenty people, two of them have completely identical names. The way round the potential for endless confusion has been for one to use her full Christian name and one a shortened form. Jesus and the disciples had similar problems: in the group of Jesus' twelve disciples there were two called Simon, two called Jude and two called James. Jesus got round the identity problems by giving them extra names or nicknames. So Jesus called one of the Jameses along with his brother John, Boanerges or "sons of thunder" to distinguish him from James son of Alphaeus.

But it's to the other pairs of disciples that we turn today, because today the church remembers one of the Simons and one of the Judases. They are perhaps best known for who they are not, they are not the better known Simon Peter or Judas Iscariot. So today is a day for anyone who lives in the shadow of someone else with your name: you have your own patron saints!

The tradition doesn't give us a clear answer about who they actually are. Simon was distinguished from Simon Peter by being known as "Simon the Cananaean" or "Simon the Zealot", a bit like "Jones the butcher." He could be so named because he was a member of the Jewish faction the Zealots who were among the freedom fighters of their day and not averse to seeing off the odd Roman met in a dark alley, or he could have that name because he was zealous for the Jewish law and thus a faithful religious observer but not necessarily with any connotation of extremism. And that's about all we can guess about him.

John's gospel describes Jude as "Judas, not Iscariot" to avoid any confusion of him with the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Luke names Jude twice (Luke 6:16, Acts 1:13) as Judas son of James, but Matthew and Mark, again to avoid any possibility of mistaking him for Judas Iscariot, name him by another name Thaddaeus, rather than Jude. If he is the author of the Epistle of Jude then he himself tells us he is the brother of James (Jude 1). Some early traditions say he was a cousin of the Virgin Mary, or even that he and James might be brothers of Jesus (Mark 6:3), and others that he might have been a farmer. And so it goes on with a lot of supposition. Jude does have one moment in the limelight because he is mentioned in John's account of the Last Supper when he asks the question "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus had been talking about the place he will go to prepare for them, that he will send them the Spirit of Truth, and telling them that the world will not see him but they will see him. Jesus is being a bit obscure so no wonder Jude asks for clarification and, judging from the fact that the question and questioner are remembered, the others were glad he asked it. As an aside, if we were to go down in history as asking one important question, I wonder what we would want it to be.

All we really know about Simon and Jude is that we don't know, so I'm not going to speculate beyond saying that both Simon and Jude were disciples who didn't shine in the limelight for good or ill, like their better known namesakes, but did stick with Jesus faithfully throughout his public ministry. Indeed in the gospel we heard today Jesus describes them as people who were with him from the beginning of his public ministry.

Today's gospel began with Jesus exhortation to the disciples, including Simon and Jude, to love one another. In these urgent words love for God and one another goes together with keeping commandments, and the love the disciples are to have for one another is contrasted with the hatred of the world for Jesus and thus for them. These words are familiar and we can miss their import for people like Simon and Jude. Because, if Jude is the author of the letter of Jude then we have a man who had been heavily influenced by Jewish eschatological thought and imagery, who was yearning for the day of the Lord that would right all wrongs. His letter speaks of the coming judgement of God, of sinners being punished and of snatching people out of the fire of destruction. His religious zeal was strong, perhaps verging on the fanatical, and he probably found a kindred spirit in the zealot Simon. If Simon was associated with freedom fighters who were prepared to use violence to achieve their ends of a Jewish nation under a Jewish messiah, then the choice to love rather than to kill would have been a big challenge that struck at the heart of what he had stood for.  And even within the group of disciples it would not have been easy to love one another: Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, for example, probably had some difficulty loving Matthew who had previously sold out to the Romans and been one of their despised tax collectors.

Sometime in history Jude became known as the patron saint of desperate or lost causes. Those who read the personal columns of the Daily Telegraph or Private Eye, which I don't, may notice that he is often thanked for his help, but whether his role as patron saint of lost causes has any connection with the fact that he is the patron saint of a popular football team in Rio de Janeiro and of the Chicago Police Department is not mine to say! The reason for his patronage of desperate causes is lost to history but may be because people wanted to avoid any possible mix up with invoking the aid of Judas Iscariot, and so avoided invoking the aid of anyone called Judas until they were totally desperate, or because his New Testament letter stresses that the Christians should persevere in difficult circumstances, following the example of their forebears. People with lost or desperate causes can be violent in their desperation but the example that Jude holds up to persecuted Christians is not one of violence but of fidelity to God, "But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life." (Jude 20-21) He had taken to heart the words we heard in the gospel today.

What did these more zealous of Jesus' disciples do with their passion? Would they be able to make the leap from religious fanaticism to passion for the way of Jesus? Judas Iscariot, another disciple with a revolutionary background, apparently failed to do so and for whatever reason - whether it was love of money or a misguided attempt to force Jesus into triumphal action against the Romans - betrayed Jesus, the ultimate denial of love. But history suggests that Simon and Jude did make that leap. Why are they remembered together? They were faithful if inconspicuous disciples during Jesus' lifetime, but after Pentecost they were willing to leave their homeland to travel for the rest of their lives as apostles. The Christian tradition associates both of them with proclaiming the gospel in Persia. Other places associates with one or other of them include Judea, Samaria, Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mauritania, Libya and Armenia, so they got around a lot. Most accounts say they were both martyred in Persia, or Armenia which was then subject to Persia, about AD 65, Simon rather gruesomely by being sawn in two. They are two men whose passion for the kingdom of God led them to passionate action, and their Jewish nationalism ended up being recast as passion that all nations should hear the gospel.

This question of how we direct our zeal and passion is a topical issue in the world today, most obviously in the decisions some people make to use violence to pursue their ends - we think immediately of the violence of terrorists, of murderers, and of sexual predators against their victims as well as the greed of people-traffickers. But what of the violence of words used in so many fora of our society from politics to domestic disputes and including, to our shame, the church where we use words intemperately to attack not only the beliefs but also the integrity of people with whom we disagree? Simon and Jude's conversion from being associated with more fanatical religious observance to being faithful disciples who kept Jesus' commandment to love the others is an example to keep before us. The fact that they became a passionate disciples rather than violent religious fanatics is testimony to the power of the gospel to transform not their passion - that was never quenched - but their pattern of living. They model to us zeal that is directed to godly ends.

I'm standing in this pulpit looking at a lot of people. You have brought to this cathedral today a multitude of life stories. I expect that most of you, like Simon and Jude, are fairly ordinary people, not in the limelight but with things and causes about which you can get very excited, even passionate. What is God calling you to do with your passion? Offered in service to God, it can help to transform the world - perhaps beginning with your own life. Many of you have career choices ahead of you: have you listened to what God might be saying about the options? Those of you with homes and incomes, however great or small: what is God saying about those? How can they be used to further the kingdom of God? At the Community Gathering next week we will be hearing from Lesotho and Durham Prison about how God is at work in those disparate places, perhaps there will be a challenge there for some of you. And if you feel that your cause is a lost one, if you feel despair or loneliness and are tempted to give up, then as the epistle exhorted you, build on the foundation of the apostle Jude who closes his letter to Christians enduring trials with words we can all take to heart as we come in praise to receive the bread and wine, the food for our journey of faith, and to give ourselves once again to serve the Lord.

"Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."