St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by The Revd Bruce W. B. Jenneker at Evensong on the Second Sunday of the Year, 20 January 2008, in St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

Lists. Lists of names. List of those who are sick. Lists of those who have asked for prayers. Lists of those who have died. The list of those who have passed matric. The list of those who have been honoured with national recognition. The list of Nobel Peace Laureates. Lists. Lists of names. They indicate who was there, designate those who made a contribution, they name those who made a difference. Lists. Lists of names.

Lists of names do more than name the people they group together, they also stand for a moment in time. It's the list of those who died in 2007, or in the First World War, or of HIV and AIDS. The lists name people, yes, but they also record a moment in time, they prod our memory, and evoke feelings associated with a specific time, an event, a place. When Augustus was emperor, and Quirinius was governor and Herod was king. Jesus was the son of Joseph son of Heli, son of Natthat, son of Levi, son of Melchi, son of Jannai, and so on for seventy-six generations. Lists. Lists of names.

'So Jesus appointed the twelve,' writes Mark, 'Simon [to whom he gave the name Peter]; James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James [to whom he gave the Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder]; and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

The list of the names of the apostles appears in Mark, Matthew and Luke as well as in the Acts of the Apostles. Twelve men they were, but we notice how carefully we re told in the Acts of the Apostles that the women were with them and among the women was Mary our Lord's mother.

Jesus called specific people, men and women with names, with unique personalities and varied temperaments. Peter, is named first, of them all the closest to him – impulsive, tempestuous, feet-first-into-the-deep-end-Peter, whose name was Simon, but whom Jesus called Peter. Stop for a moment and think about that – this name Peter. Jesus called Simon Rocky because Peter was solid and firm and loyal and a bastion of commitment and fidelity. Jesus called Simon Rocky even though he knew that Rocky would fall at the first obstacle. Jesus called Simon Rocky because he knew that Rocky would rise above his treacherous denials to a faithful witness and triumphant martyrdom.

With Peter, whom Jesus called Rocky, there were two others in his immediate circle: James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Peter, James and John – these three were always with him, where he taught and healed, when he broke away to pray, up on the mountain when he was transfigured, in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed while they slept. James and John were there. Sons of Thunder he called them, all sound and fury, wild and whirling, seething and stormy. Through the veil of two thousand years and the dark curtain of veneration we discern the very real was intimacy here: Rocky and the Thunderboys, fishermen, the guys from the dockside with Jesus the Rabbi of Nazareth.

But they were not alone these four – there were the others: Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Here on the Second Sunday of the Year, on the twentieth day of the new year, the question comes to us: are you on the list. Am I? This talk of lists reminds me of a conversation I had with an usher in a parish in which I had just arrived. I was standing at the door after the service, having just preached my first sermon. 'Hello, I'm Stanley,' he said, 'Welcome. I hope you'll be happy here. By the way, I am on the B-List.' I was flummoxed. The B-List. Did this parish have a A-List and a C-List as well? Whatever could he mean. Stanley read the consternation on my face and said, 'I be here before you arrived. I be here while you're here. I'll be here after you have gone. I'm on the B-list.'

Are our names included in the list, are we numbered among the Friends of Jesus? Of course our names are there, we are baptised in his name, our names are inscribed in his blood. As far as he is concerned, our names are there. But for our part, do we live as those whose names are up there with Peter and James and John, or even with Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean.

You agree, don't you, that we live as if we have forgotten that our names are on the list. When we bend to the wind of the culture of corruption, and cut corners off honesty in dealings with our colleagues, our friends and our family, we forget that our names are on the list. We write ourselves off the list when we are blind to prejudice and deaf to bigotry, supporting a culture of rape and violence against women with our sexist jokes and role-defining assumptions and expectations. When we break the bonds of peace that bind us together through word and sacrament, when we block out the scandal of our unhappy divisions, and feel no pain at the enmity between Christians, we take ourselves off the list.

The companions of Jesus are those who listen to him, accept his teaching and live his way. The companions of Jesus are those who gaze upon him, revelling in the loveliness of God which comes to us in him. The companions of Jesus are those who follow him, loosening themselves from all that keeps them from him, from all that distracts, from all that diverts. The companions of Jesus are those who abandon themselves to him – to serve as he serves, to will what he wills, to love as he loves.

May the grace of God keep us worthy of our place in the list. The list of names.

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