The readings are (to read them, click on each link below or go HERE):
Remember back 20 or so months ago when Covid-19 was just a strange virus that had shown up in China? And then we started hearing reports about it spreading. It went to Italy and then to other countries. I remember looking at a map that showed cases around the world and seeing that it had reached only a few countries in Africa. Many countries had no cases at all. But gradually cases grew in these countries too, until eventually, as we know, the whole world was affected, and we ended up with the pandemic that we have had since then.
I mention this because of what it made me think of as I looked at that map. It showed how interconnected we all are, how interconnected the whole human race is, all around the globe.
The readings today are telling us how connected we are. And sometimes that’s an uncomfortable thing, like with the spreading of Covid, and sometimes it’s an absolutely grand thing, because we need each other, and it’s important to remember that we really are connected. In fact, evil tries to drive people apart; what is good and holy draws people together and binds them together in ways that support and encourage them and help them to grow in their faith.
This is one point in the readings today: how much we are bound together. But the point each of our readings is making is not so much that the whole human race is connected. Rather the point is that people of faith are connected to each other and have a responsibility toward one another.
This works two ways. The first is that we have a responsibility that how we live will not harm someone else’s faith.
Now we might think that if we just live our life rightly, as individuals, that this is what matters. If we are good, and honest, and perhaps if we work hard and pay our taxes, that this is enough. But one uncomfortable thing about the Christian faith is that it is not enough for each of us, of ourselves individually, to be good. It also matters how we affect others.
“If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me,” Jesus says, “it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” He then continues with words and sayings that are highly uncomfortable — all about tearing out our eyes and cutting off our hands and feet if any of them cause us to stumble. As was often done in those days, Jesus is talking in extreme language to provoke us, to make us sit up and take notice. It all means that if anything we are doing or believing is getting in the way of our own faith, or is destroying someone else’s faith, if some action or belief is drawing ourselves or someone else into harmful beliefs or behaviours, that we should cast that action or belief as far from ourselves as we possibly can. We should renounce it, reject it, move away from it.
As a simple example, I’m reminded of a friend of mine who once said that she knew swearing is what came between her and God — she could tell that when she swore, it changed her spirit, she felt something warped and twisted inside her. So she worked on changing her habits of speech, and asked God to help her change them.
Take note that when Jesus says, “one of these little ones who believe in me,” he is not necessarily talking about children — or not only about children. It could also mean anyone who is new in the faith, anyone who is coming to believe. Don’t be a stumbling block to them. Don’t destroy their faith.
This past Wednesday evening we had the Confirmation service in Adare. We had 12 candidates, from all around our parishes. They were all somewhere between 12 and 14 years old. For the Confirmation service, the candidates brought their families — siblings, parents, grandparents — and sometimes godparents. One of the things the Bishop said in his sermon was to point out how much other people had cared for them, and supported them, for them to get to this point of being confirmed. It reminded me of something that I found myself saying several times in the confirmation classes: that “we’re all in this together.” Meaning, being a Christian is not an individual thing. We are meant to support one another. In baptism and confirmation services we promise to help one another as we each try to live the Christian faith. It is hard to go it alone. We need to help one another.
And that’s the second way that people of faith are connected and have a responsibility to each other. We are part of a larger body — as Christians, we call it the Body of Christ — and we are meant to look after the good of the whole.
This is shown in our other two readings. The Old Testament reading tells the story of Esther. This book is not read very often, and I won’t tell the whole story here. But basically the Jewish people are in exile, including Esther and her uncle and guardian Mordecai. Esther had become a queen to the king of this country, but that does not mean she is entirely safe, shall we say. The king is still the king. A wicked man Haman, who is an advisor to the king, has conspired to kill Mordecai and all the Jewish people. Esther figures out a way to save her uncle Mordecai and all her people, at possible jeopardy to her own safety and her own life. She could have protected herself, she could have turned aside from her people, but she did not. She was part of a people of faith, and her loyalty was to her people and to God.
The Letter of James also shows how people of faith — in this case, Christians — help one another. He says we should be praying for one another, especially praying for the sick and for those who seek forgiveness. The picture he paints is of a group who pray with those who are suffering and who rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and who are bound together. The well-being of one is tied to the well-being of another, in body and in spirit. We are all in this together.
Jesus says to his disciples, “No one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.” Praying for one another, praying for healing, praying for forgiveness, seeking to help someone else in their faith — these are deeds of power, for when we do them sincerely and in the name of Christ, they have the power of God behind them. In the end, that is what we seek. It is the power of God in Christ that binds people of faith together. It brings a connection that goes beyond simply all of us being human. It is the power of God in Christ that works in us as we seek to protect one another in the faith. May God strengthen our faith and enable to see and serve Christ’s presence in one another, for we are all in this together, and:
“Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who has made heaven and earth.