St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by the Very Reverend Rowan Smith in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on 27 September 2009

“ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” Luke 5

It is not the kind of book that l would naturally have been drawn to, but one of the Dominican Sisters recommended it and then two weeks later, it was given as a spontaneous gift for my birthday by a close friend. The book, that you may well have heard of, is called “The Shack” by W. M. Paul Young. It took some time for me to begin reading but I have been very pleasantly surprised and discovered God's prompting as l read its pages. It is not my intention at this stage, to talk about it but in line with our New Testament lesson tonight I want to quote what Young says about the Church:

“It's all about relationships and simply sharing life… My church is all about people, and life is all about relationships…” p.180

That is how Jesus answers Mack who is on a journey to recover himself. The call of Our Lord Jesus to Simon Peter and James and John is both to follow him and to be in relationship with one another through him.

“... they left everything and followed him.”

This was after they had heard Jesus' teaching from the boat, which reminded me of the church of St Gregory Nyssa in San Francisco where the preacher sits to deliver the sermon – Jesus then invites them to

“Put into the deep water and let your nets down for a catch.” v 4

Though they are seasoned fishermen who had caught nothing, they obey and are rewarded with:

“… so many fish that their nets were beginning to break…” v 6

Peter, so wonderfully forthright, feels unworthy and wants Jesus to leave them, but this is not part of Jesus' plan – despite Peter's protestation, he is called and empowered to bring others to know Christ. Our Lord also calls each one of us, despite our sense of sin and inadequacy, to follow him and through our lives to bring others into the knowledge of God's saving love through that relationship with Jesus Christ.

It is to community that we are called and we hear that same call to witness to the nations in the prophet Hosea because Israel had forsaken her vocation and gone after other lovers. She does not appreciate God's generosity towards her:

“She did not know that it was l
Who gave her the grain, the wine and oil, and who lavished upon her silver and gold that they used for Baal.” 2 v 8

Yet despite all this apostasy, this refusing to accept God's gracious love; despite seeking to punish her for her misdeeds, the prophet tells of God's desire, God's longing for his chosen people:

“Therefore, I will now allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” V 14

This is that same voice that has been calling from the beginning, 'Where are you?' That is the voice that we also hear today for us to leave everything and to follow Jesus. Like Israel, like the disciples, God is well aware of our sense of unworthiness and also of our fear of loving. We prefer to hold on to our false securities, to our limited and narrow vision of the world and to the fear of losing ourselves. One of our hymns puts it thus:

“Jesus calls us from the worship
Of the vain world's golden store,
From each idol that would keep us
Saying, 'Christian, love me more.” AMR 533

For each one of us and also for the community of the Church, there has to be that letting go, that leaving behind those securities which hinder us from truly being as Christ in the world. The present economic melt-down has in no small part resulted from our worship of the golden calf – the amassing of wealth, the procurement of possessions and the exploitation of the God – given resources of our planet, earth. But instead of this financial depression leading us to repentance, we find e.g. in South Africa growing corruption and abuse of political clout in order to amass even more wealth and so contributing, as a recent report this past week has revealed, to the enormous disparity between rich and poor and the increase in poverty levels. Look also how we reward corrupt behaviour and someone who admits to lying in public about Caster Semenya is voted back by his peers as President of A.S.A. We need to hear God speak to us also not to assume that we as the Church are untainted because we are part of this world. We are called, therefore to listen to God who says:

“I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”

Jesus calls us to that that place in our daily living, the wilderness, the place of encounter; not just to wrestle with our own temptations but also to find him in that space in the deep places of our heart where he speaks to us softly and tenderly like Elijah listening to the still small voice. There in our time of praying, wherever we are able to draw aside in stillness there we are called to hold before God our world. Not to accuse but to plead in Jesus for the healing of our world and the transfiguration of our Church. It is our task, as Prof Elna Mouton said to the Synod of the diocese of False Bay recently, through the Holy Spirit we are to be bearers of hope in a world of false hope and that hope is Jesus Christ. Through us Jesus calls us to direct the world to him and make of the Church as the prophet declares:

"... a door of hope.” Hosea 2 v 15

Back to Sermons page

Mission and Vision | Services | Music | Ministries| History | Glass | Tour | Staff
Cathedral Friends | Publications | Links | Site Map | Home