Jonah 3:1-9; Revelation 3:14-22
‘Wir schaffen das’. ‘We can do this’. Such was the famous claim by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 at the height of the European migrant crisis. It was a statement which reflected both a generous response to the refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan but also a confidence in the resources which lay within the German state. Ten years on and that statement of confidence has come in for significant criticism, with the present Chancellor Friedrich Merz – from the same political party as Merkel it must be noted – seeing Germany’s resources – and thus its response - in a very different light.
The question of confidence in home-grown resources is one that comes across in both our scripture readings this morning; I want us to look chiefly at our second reading, the words of Christ to the church in Laodicea, as narrated by John in Revelation 3.
It was not uncommon in the early church for the Christian community to take on the characteristics of the town or city where they were placed. Corinth is the stand-out example; as many commentators have noted, its main problem was that it was more Corinthian than Christian. But there are examples also in the letters to the seven churches in the early chapters of Revelation, and this certainly seems to be the case with the church in Laodicea. That Christian community had absorbed the values of successful, prosperous Laodicea, known as a centre of banking, textile production and with its own medical school. And this had resulted in them feeling proud and self-sufficient: ‘I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing.’ I need nothing. Such a statement of self-confidence, of confidence in their own resources, brings forth from Christ a stern warning ‘I am about to spit you out of my mouth’, a challenge ‘buy from me…’, and an invitation ‘open the door, [and] I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me’. The Christians in Laodicea are challenged and encouraged to depend not on themselves but to come to Christ recognising their dependence on him. Like the people of Nineveh in our first reading they are called to lay aside pride and turn to the Lord.
Rowan Williams, in a wonderful book published last year on the wisdom from the Eastern Christian tradition, writes powerfully and beautifully on why pride is so spiritually dangerous. ‘Pride’, he says, ‘is at heart a failure to accept dependence gratefully and gracefully’. While the world over-values self-sufficiency and autonomy, he argues the Christian is called to recognise their dependence on their creator God for all their need. In words that could have been a follow-up letter to the Laodiceans he writes,
‘Do we secretly believe we are own creators? Or do we know that we are in the hand of God? Do we secretly believe we have the resources to make remake ourselves alone?...Poverty of spirit, the acknowledgement of dependence, is or richest resource, our final security; to know that we are creatures is the path to sharing the joy of the creator.’
It is not only the churches in the first century which have found that having access to their own resources carried with it spiritual risks. I know that the Church Commissioners, who are stewards of the Church of England’s very considerable assets and who contribute generously to mission across England, themselves believe that what is most needed is not money but a spiritual awakening across the Church focussed on a dependence on God. And certainly with regard to Durham Cathedral, where our building and some historic investments are a huge resource, it would be tempting to think that we already have everything we need. Yet the spiritual reality is that we don’t. The most important page of the Vision 2033 booklet is the one at the back, because there is the prayer which invites us to turn to God for the resources we need for all that we are seeking to make happen.
One of things I often to say to people who are visiting us for worship here in Durham Cathedral is ‘please pray for us.’ I then sometimes follow it up with, ‘please pray for me.’ My own ministry as Dean, as is true for us all in whatever service we have been called to, is not something I can do in my own strength and with my own resources. I am dependent on the Lord for everything, for every breath, for every step, for every word. That may be a humbling place to be, but it is not humiliating. Rather, to seek the Lord’s resources is to open that door described in our reading, a door where Jesus has been knocking, longing for us to invite him in so that we can sit and eat together, a picture of relationship where we are not humiliated in our need but provided for with love.
Wir schaffen das. We can do this. Indeed we can, but only if the we is not you and me and other people we might recruit to the cause, but us in humble and dependent fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, recognising our need of his grace and strength day by day. Amen
Let us pray
Almighty God, thou knowest our need of thee in every waking hour.
Give us grace to humble ourselves under Thy mighty hand.
Keep us from pride of self, pride of performance, pride of position.
Awake in us a new desire to seek all we need from Thy gracious hand,
That in receiving thy daily provision we may enter more fully into Thy love and care.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.