This post takes the form of a sermon that was to be delivered to a meeting of the Chaplains in Anglican School group at Melbourne Grammar by the Revd. Dr. Ronald Noone. Unfortunately, Covid intervened, the meeting never happened and so the sermon was never delivered. But fortunately, Ronald has been happy for it to be shared on the blog so we can all appreciate this thoughtful reflection.
David Cornwell is a popular English writer who specializes in espionage novels. He worked for the British Secret Service and wasn’t allowed to write under his real name so he wrote under the pen name of John Le Carre, which means ‘the Square’. His first novel, Call from the Dead, introduced one of fictions most famous spies – George Smiley, who is both brilliant and unremarkable. Cornwell modeled Smiley on a Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School when he was a student there from 1942 to 1951. His other spy novels include The Spy who came in from the Cold and the trilogy The Honourable Schoolboy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People. These novels feature the legendary clash between the Englishman Smiley and the Russian, Karla, two brilliant spymasters on opposite sides of the Cold War.
In the BBC television series, Smiley was beautifully played by Sir Alec Guinness – in my view, one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. In one scene a subordinate is saying to Smiley that Karla is unstoppable. He is too well connected, too powerful, has too many resources and is too cleaver. Smiley’s usually calm demeanor is abandoned as he replies, “No Peter, he’s not! We’ll get him.” “How?” asks Peter. More calmly Smiley replies, “His lack of moderation will be his downfall.”
Moderation is a characteristic of the Anglican Church and other churches have derided us because of it – sometimes described as “the bland leading the bland”. It’s true that Anglicanism is not fond of excesses. We can’t boast about too many glittering saints, although we have a few. Nor do we have lots of heroic martyrs who have given their lives for the faith, although we have a few. On the other hand, we do not excommunicate people for not believing the right things.
In practice, moderation works itself out in the lives of our believers. For example, how we approach our working lives; how we treat others; how we view mercy and justice; even our approach to drinking alcohol and gambling. The world wide economic downturn in the financial markets was largely due to a lack of moderation on the part of so many involved. It could also be called greed. So too, could the death of a young man (16yrs old) and his friend, killed in a car accident due to the same lack of moderation he displayed throughout in his young life. And before we criticize too quickly what goes on with others, we should remember that we all have the capacity to cross the line from moderation to excess. And that line can be very thin at times. A favourite Anglican psalm is 103;
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy,
Slow to anger and of great kindness.
He will not always accuse us,
Nor will he keep his anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins
Nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So is his mercy great upon those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has he removed our sins from us.
As a father cares for his children
So does the Lord care for those who fear him.
For he knows of what we are made;
He remembers that we are but dust.
As Fr. Stanton used to say, “You can’t always expect dust to be up to the mark”!
Moderation may not be ‘sexy’ as a guiding principle, but moderation in all things has a lot going for it. It can often keep you safe; Safe enough for you to see your next birthday; Safe enough for you and your friends to enjoy significant events in your life. Moderation is an Anglican trait that may help prevent a number of small and larger downfalls. And I mention it today because there is an additional descriptive adjective applied to the term. “Robust Moderation” is a term used by the World Lutheran Federation President, Bishop Munib Younan, to describe the position necessary to oppose extremists, especially in the Middle East. He is a bishop in the Holy Land and is convinced that churches have a responsibility to strengthen political and religious moderates throughout the world, as the clearest way to diminish the appeal of extremism. He says, “This is not a wishy-washy moderation; it is instead a robust moderation that claims the mandate of faith and defends the wellbeing of all people, not only Christians.”
It seems to me that we live in an unsettled time where we must strengthen robust moderation. Political movements around the world seem to be leaving the centre and moving to the extremes and along with such movements there seems to be a disconnect between concepts of truth. The 2016 presidential campaign turned into a crisis of truth. With his inauguration, President Trump and his aides have continued to offer ‘alternative facts’ to those presented by the news media and journalists. Surely it has the makings of a crisis when the media and the office of the President are at constant loggerheads. The Oxford English Dictionary said their word of the year for 2016 was “post-truth”. The word “post-truth” even if it is a word, implies that the world has gone beyond the question of truth to something that has replaced truth or is more important than truth. Their definition is “a state in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal beliefs.” The editors of the OED are unfortunately giving credence to the lazy and dangerous opinion that truth is not as important as it used to be. Anyone, it seems, can present a set of alternative facts and the truth becomes totally subjective. Truth becomes whatever you want it to be.
In such an environment we are like Simeon, looking for consolation – for security and stability in a rapidly changing world. We look for some consolation about the state of the world, the environment, the state of our nation, and about the state of our own lives, our relationships, our hopes and dreams.
We need to have robust views of our own that have been tried and tested over time by Christians attempting to live by the values of the gospel, the kingdom to which Christ so mysteriously points. Along the way we have been given the insights to tell the false from the real, the healthy from the unhealthy, the truth from the lie.
Leo Tolstoy, the accomplished Russian writer, wrote a work he titled, An Investigation of Dogmatic Theology. He wrote, “I have no doubt that there is truth in the doctrine; but there can also be no doubt that it harbors a lie; and I must find the truth and the lie so I can tell them apart.”
People whose voices are being raised now are those who experience the intolerable contradiction between the life to which the gospel calls them and what they see being done by governments, sometimes under the guise of Christianity. Their witness, like Smiley’s is to say “No”. They also join with a heroine of the Hebrew Scriptures, Rachael, who refused to be consoled.
As I prepare to finish, may your mind and heart always question the seductive distractions of worldly values and possessions that sometimes make us forget where our true nature and happiness lies. May your educated heart question too, the policies and practices that lead to falsehood and injustice and may you have the courage to always be ‘up to the mark’ and stand for the poor, the needy, the disenfranchised – to genuinely care about those less fortunate than ourselves.
An open mind is a great thing and it should be nurtured and nourished. But an open mind in all things will hamper your progress and development. Sooner or later a decision must be made. We made a decision for Christ some time ago and that means if we believe in Jesus there are certain things that we must not believe. Telling apart the truth and the lie is not always easy and I encourage you to always learn more about our faith. A combination of prayerful obedience and a faithful disbelief will enable you to find the way to your true home, your true self.
May the loving God be always with you on your journey. Amen.
Be First to Comment