Solemnity of Saint Agnes
Song of Solomon, 2:10-13
2 Corinthians, 10:17-11:2
Matthew, 18:1-6
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Since last autumn, I have been going out to Virginia Theological Seminary each month to discuss priestly vocation with other priests. We split a morning into two parts. We begin by reflecting upon an assigned theological reading, and then we reflect upon the personal story of one of the priests.
Our reading for last week came from the work of John Zizioulas, a highly regarded Eastern Orthodox Bishop, a theologian of rare caliber. He made the emphatic point that "there is no such thing as 'non-ordained' persons in the Church." (1) Baptism and confirmation are "essentially an ordination;" they are acts of God making us ministers in his Church. Not everyone is ordained to say mass, but God calls every Christian to ministry. God gives every Christian different gifts for ministry. And every aspect of our lives is an opportunity to serve and glorify God.
In the second half of our meeting last week, it was my turn to present my story - how I discerned God's call to me to be a priest. Part of my call comes from my interest in politics. For many years before I was a Christian, I believed that politics could solve most of humanity's problems. To some extent, I thought that through our political life we could create something like heaven on earth. Naive - no doubt, but if you don't have some idealism and hope and concern for the greater good, you're life is miserable and lost.
A big conversion moment for me was realizing that even if we could create heaven on earth, it didn't matter. We all died. For life to be meaningful, it has to have a dimension beyond our earthly existence. While I still have a great interest in politics and highly esteem people with a vocation in politics; while I still believe in our country's values and ideals and in our potential; while I still know that politics can be a means to alleviate suffering, to increase justice, to enrich lives, and to raise up people, I came to see that the most important thing in individual's life is Jesus Christ. The most important thing in life is a relationship with God, an anchor in eternity, a purpose bigger than our earthly existence.
What's more important for a person than safe communities, good education, civil liberty, employment, healthcare, even more important than food and shelter? A relationship with Jesus. That's primary. It must be quickly pointed out that honoring our relationship with Jesus means serving other people and making our world a better place. But people need Jesus in their lives more than anything else.
Jesus transforms our lives. He changes who we are and re-orders our values. If we want heaven on earth, or an occasional taste of it, the first thing that has to happen is that we have to change. We have to become more like Christ. It's not changing the world; it's changing ourselves. We come to mass and we pray and we work to narrow that gap between what we are and what God calls us to be, to narrow that gap between heaven and earth in our hearts and minds.
"Except ye be converted," Jesus says in today's gospel, "and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Convert and become like little children. That's what God calls us to be. Let's not be sentimental. That doesn't mean that we need to become innocent and pure like little children are innocent and pure. (2) Little children are not innocent and pure. They are as self-centered, as ill-mannered, as rebellious, as immoderate, and as inconsiderate, as adults.
It's arguable that Jesus means we should become as teachable as little children. Little children are eager to learn, rapidly absorbing information, trying to grow and to understand. They enjoy learning and are good at it - much better than adults. They are more open and less cynical; they are not 'know-it-alls.' They are rapidly growing and maturing - purposely focused on changing. No doubt, that is an essential characteristic of every healthy spiritual life. We should never stop growing, adding depth to our life, enhancing our personality, trying to be more virtuous, developing more character, renewing our sense of God's call to us. Indeed, at our vestry's retreat last year, we agreed that one of our core values here is to nurture growth and to be a learning parish.
It's also possible that the command to 'become as little children' means to be dependent upon God the way a child is dependent upon a parent. We should trust God even more than a child trusts a loving parent. God loves us. God provides for us. God knows what is best for us. We should obey God, but his love and devotion to us remains solid and firm regardless of our disobedience.
We should be permanent learners, always growing and changing. We should trust God, always depending upon him and certain of his love for us. But in this instance when Jesus called his followers to become like little children, he meant that we should assume the status of a little child. In first-century Judaism, children had no status; a child was a social 'nobody.' (3) Jesus wants us to become lowly, to become humble, to give up all ambition for status, wealth, power, importance, acclaim. We have so much ambition for all of that, and none of it makes of more godly, none of it even makes us happy. Jesus says, "Don't worry about that. Turn your heart to the lowly. Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are the meek."
It is a radical challenge to which we do not measure up well, but it can give us great comfort. It reminds us what is most important in life is not valued by the world, that what the world counts as success and as important is usually vanity. So often we get hurt and feel bad about ourselves because we aren't accorded enough status or regard, but Jesus says that's not what's important. We need to change our ambition. Jesus' command to become lowly strikes against worldly morality which sees humility and lowliness as a vice, as weakness. Jesus turns the world's values upside-down. The Church rejects the world's social hierarchies and unites all people - men and women, child and adult, rich and poor, black and white, free and slave. We count every person as equal and as infinitely valuable in God's eyes.
Become like children. That's why we honor S. Agnes, deemed powerless by the world, little Agnes who trusted God, committed her life to Jesus, and stood up to the world's corrupt power. She wasn't ambitious for position or acceptance or wealth or dominance. She witnessed to us what is most important in life - a faithful relationship with Christ, and it cost her earthly life. That's why 1700 years later we still remember her. How will people remember us? What is our ambition? What have we been serving?
Last week, we also honored another Christian who had witnessed to what's important in life, who identified with the lowly. A couple months before he was killed, Martin Luther King wondered how he'd be remembered. He didn't want to be remembered for the status and importance he had achieved. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Time's 'Man of the Year,' he said,
If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. . . .
I'd like somebody to mention that day that [I] tried to give [my] life serving others.
I'd like for somebody to say that day that [I] tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked.
I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison.
I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. . . .
And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want [you] to say. . . .
Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world. (4)Making a new world - that's the ministry to which God calls every one of us. And the beginning of making a new world is letting Jesus change us, change us so that we trust and depend upon God, change us so that we are open to learning and growth, change us so that in humility we count others better than ourselves, change us so that our only ambition is a committed life to Jesus.
+In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1. John D. Zizioulas, Being As Communion, S. Vladimir's Seminary Press (1985), pp. 215-216.
2. Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew, John Knox Press (1993), p. 209-210, on four possibilities of the meaning of 'become like little children.'
3. Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Matthew, The Liturgical Press (1991), p. 266.
4. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, 4 February 1968.
© 2006 Lane John Davenport
