Revd Mark Bonney
Those of you who listen to Radio 4 particularly with John Humphreys, or the late evening programmes with Jeremy Paxman will know the sense of frustration that can arise when the person being questioned won’t give you a direct answer. Of course sometimes the questions are a little tricky –not usually as direct as “come one- answer me yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?” – sometimes the person being questioned has been well and truly cornered and their evasion is simply that – evasion and refusal to admit something: but if I’m in a charitable mood, which occasionally happens, I would have to recognise that the situation isn’t as straightforward as the questioner wishes to make it – and that the evasiveness of the answer is more to do with complexity of the issue than with the unwillingness of the person being questioned to answer.
Questions and requests are always important –who makes them, how they’re made and the kind of response sought says a lot about the questioner. In the gospels many questions are put to Jesus - some are sincerely put, some are their to trap him, some are honest, some are devious, some expose mistaken assumptions that make a straightforward answer difficult to give.
There are times when Jesus refuses to answer his questioners – like the case of the woman taken in adultery. You remember that in answer to the question should she be stoned he simply says ‘let the on without sin throw the first stone’. There are times when the question is answered with a story - as in the question “and who is my neighbour” - and we hear the story we know as the Good Samaritan with the command to go and do likewise. Jesus is most severely questioned during his trials before crucifixion – the gospels paint different pictures of these – in Mark’s gospel Jesus’ final silence in the face of accusations is described in terms of amazement, whilst in John’s gospel Jesus tells Pilate in no uncertain terms that Pilate has no power over him unless it had been given him from above.
The questioners of today’s gospel have reached the frustrated stage - stop beating about the bush – “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus is unable to answer plainly because his understanding of Messiahship doesn’t fall into their categories. It’s not a case of having some kind of check list – ticking the boxes and seeing if we have the right answer – the answer is more to do with being in his fold – about following him – it’s only by following that the answer emerges.
Today is Vocations Sunday in the CofE. I hope it doesn’t come as a shock to anyone when I say that we all have a Vocation – it’s something that comes to each one of us through our Baptism. What is God calling me to be? A simple question that may take a lifetime to answer – a question that we can put off answering and be evasive about because we’re anxious what the answer might be - but God calls each one of us who’s been baptised. He calls us firstly to be faithful Christian people in whatever context we find ourselves – at home at work, at play; calls us to fulfil certain roles in the Christina community – for some that will be ordination or some other form of authorised ministry; and I’m always happy to talk with anyone about that; but it might equally be a call to listen to those in need, to exercise some kind of pastoral care; it may to encourage others, to be welcoming. As I said last week – the call to follow Jesus might be dangerous – might be challenging.
The challenges of the call of God came home to me in a concrete form when I received an e mail this week from Andrew Proud with whom we are linked through USPG. Andrew’s working in Ethiopia and he wrote asking whether we could give a little extra support to 5 people who are being ordained as priests at the end of this month. They’re holding the first ever local Synod of the Diocese of Egypt, in Ethiopia in May, when their Bishop will be coming. This Synod is vital to the Church there because none of the Sudanese clergy have passports and cannot attend the annual Diocesan Synod in Cairo.
During the local Synod, Andrew will be presenting five men for ordination as priest, and four to be made deacon. All are of Sudanese origin and already serve in the Anglican parishes in the Gambella (the western region of Ethiopia). Those to be priested have been deacons for five years. Unlike many parts of the contemporary Anglican world, the Sudanese place a high value on ordination, on liturgy and on being dressed properly for the job. They very much want to provide each with; a cassock and surplice, a cassock alb, four stoles, one in each liturgical colour and two clerical shirts. And Andrew’s asking whether we can help towards the £300 this will cost for the five men.
I’d like to read something he wrote back in December about the place where they’re working:
“The weeks before Christmas had been dominated by news of renewed conflict and violence in and around Gambella town, over land and resources. This time, clashes were not so much between Sudanese tribes, but increasingly between the Annuak (a group whose territory traditionally spans the rather fluid border between the Sudan and Ethiopia) and Ethiopian highlanders. In one day, in reprisals for over 23 highlanders killed in the previous week, over 300 Annuak were massacred and 500 more made homeless in Gambella town as houses were burnt. All roads leading to and from many of the camps have remained highly dangerous. The new Annuak congregation we had in Gambella town has been decimated: of the seventy who used to worship together under a tree, only ten remain; the rest were either killed or have fled into the forest. Pinyidu refugee camp has found itself the scene of horrors we can only imagine and trouble has recently spread further south to Dimma, another major refugee settlement. 196 people were slaughtered there only last week and cattle are frequently stolen or killed – an act deliberately designed to strike at the heart of Dinka and Nuer cultural identity. Although Gambella town is calm now, my plans to visit the new Churches down there early in January had to be aborted. Supporting the leaders there, however, became more pressing than ever. Thanks be to God, we managed to get 14 of the 20 leaders out of danger and up to Addis in February, for a five day ministry retreat. As it turns out, this happened at just the right time, for reasons other than escaping violence. The new pastoral arrangements we had put in place six months ago are obviously beginning to bear fruit: Churches are being planted, old conflicts are being resolved and new initiatives are being planned. It was wonderful to see how, despite the dangers and difficulties they face, each of the leaders has grown visibly in the last year. We now have more parishes outside the refugee settlements than within and we want to do all we can to encourage and support the work they are starting.”
Now God may not be calling you to go out to Ethiopia like Andrew – he may not be calling you to be a priest (though don’t rule that possibility out); but here’s a simple call for some assistance from one Christian community to another.. I hope that we can answer that without prevarication! It puts our celebrations this morning in a wider context as we all seek to answer the call of the one and only living God who is Father Son and Holy Spirit.