Keep Resisting

Sermon given on 22nd September 2024

(Opening up the theme at the start of the service)

If someone was going on a challenging journey, what might they take in their backpack?

I remember when I did my first long distance walk – Hadrian’s wall – after about five days my feet had blisters, it was raining and I was tried and fed up. And as I slumped on a bench by the side of the road, a bus drew up with the inviting word “Carlisle” on the front. It felt like a not so subtle temptation-waving its arms in front of me saying – go on, give up! However, Chris, my walking companion, spotted it too and said – Come on David, let’s have a drink and he took his flask out of his pack, and the bus drove on.

In Creation season we are reflecting on “Living well in an ecological crisis” and each themes are some of the things we might want in our spiritual and moral and practical backpack: carry on caring; be creative and today we have “Keep on resisting”.

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Bible readings:

Esther 4 v4-17 – “I will go to the King, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish”.

Acts 4v 13-22 – “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Matthew 4 v1-11 – Jesus resisting temptation

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At the end of the DVD of the film “The Way”, about the walking the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella, there is an interview with the American star of the film Martin Sheen. He talks about how he returned to his faith after a major crisis, and how his faith has led him to protest many times – and be arrested several times – against America’s involvement in wars. And he says that he doesn’t do it because he thinks he is going to change things, he does it because he has to, in order to be true to himself. In the words of Martin Luther: Here I stand, I can do no other.

And human history is decorated with stories of people like that who resisted, not because they thought it would necessarily change things – more often it probably didn’t – But they did it all the same, because they could do no other. And our Bible readings today offer us three such stories.

The book of Esther is not one that, to my knowledge, only appears once in the lectionary. Possibly because God is never explicitly mentioned in it. And to what extent it’s an historical account is debated, but I don’t think that’s really important as it illustrates a way of living well in a dangerous world – which for Jewish people has been relevant far too often. It is set in Persia in the 5th century BC. Esther rises, mainly through her physical attractiveness and agreeable personality, to become Queen – though all the time hiding her Jewish identity. However a time of crisis comes when the King’s chief official – a man called Haman – initiates a plan (in the Kings’ name but without the King’s knowledge) to wipe out the whole Jewish community across the empire. Mordecai, her cousin, and one of the royal courtiers tells her that she must go to the king. She refuses, because to enter the king’s presence without being summoned is a capital offense, but Mordecai says that when the storm breaks, she will be just as vulnerable as everyone else. And so Esther resolves to go. She will declare her true identity and speak to the king and, as she says, “if I perish, then I perish”. If you don’t know how the story ends, I will leave you to find out for yourself – it is worth reading. But here we see Esther going from being pliant and obedient – a trophy wife – to saying: Here I stand, I can do no other. In one way she is trying to change things. But she is also resisting her own fear and desire for self-protection, in order to do what needs to be done – come what may.

The story of Peter and John brings us to very early days after the resurrection of Jesus. They have been arrested for publicly proclaiming Christ in Jerusalem and the religious leaders order them to stop and threaten them. But their response is one of resistance – of civil disobedience. “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” We can do no other – whatever you may do to us.

And Jesus, of course, resisted the temptations he faced. He resisted, inwardly, the siren inner voice that would lead him astray. And that inner resistance was surely the key to  him living well – Christians would say living perfectly – enabling him to resist all the outer pressures coming from his opponents, the crowds and even his disciples – pressure to change course rather than be true to himself and true to the will of his heavenly Father. So resistance has both an inner and an outer dimension.

Last week saw the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, where a twisted version of jihad led people to fly planes into the twin towers. Properly understood, jihad does have an outward sense – combatting evil and injustice, but most Islamic scholars emphasise, for more important is the inner jihad, inner struggle.

As we move forward into a time of climate breakdown, resistance is going to be needed as part of our spiritual backpack. There will be things in our society that we will need to resist.

The dehumanising voices, in response to an ever increasing number of climate refugees, or the tensions in response to unpopular environmental policies. Outer resistance will be about trying to help sustain a humane, just and wise society in the face of very great pressures to the contrary. And I strongly suspect that Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount – about non-violent civil disobedience, is going to be central to that. Some of us may find ourselves compelled to be on protest marches or take other forms of action, some of us may become what Alan Bennett calls a “Lady (or gentleman) of Letters”, some of us – perhaps all – may have conversations or encounters  where resistance is called for – in response to the fears, prejudices or false information that we encounter. Not keeping quiet and so implying that we agree, but speaking the truth – in love – as St Paul calls us to.

I am reminded of Pastor Martin Niehmoller’s famous words about an earlier crisis:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left to speak out for me

However perhaps the most important sphere of resistance is going to be within ourselves. Resisting the fears, the desire to look away or stay silent, or the abject despair which says – why bother, it’s all pointless. As Jenny reminded us a couple of weeks ago – you don’t give up on someone or something that dying – you carry on caring to the very end.

Some of you may remember that when John and I were doing our forum on hymn choosing, I said that I had been quite attracted by a hymn for this Sunday which included the phrase – Teach our rebel hearts to pray. It was probably originally about us rebelling against God, but it seemed to me that maybe Christ is calling us to be rebels for life.  To rebel against a status quo that is destroying our planet, and for that rebellion, that resistance, to be deeply rooted in how we pray and what we pray about. I guess that many of you know of the Serenity Prayer:

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

It was originally written by the protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1930s and it has come to be much loved. However I want to take issue with it. Because life – especially in a time of global ecological breakdown – doesn’t fall into that binary distinction of things to accept and things to change. Into fight or flight. There is at least one other stance: to resist, to stand because we can do no other. Not because we calculate it will be successful, but because not to resist would be to deny both ourselves and  Christ. And I think that is so much harder to do alone than with others. So I think the prayer needs another line:

Grant us, Lord, “the strength to resist the things that should not be accepted even if they cannot be changed.”

To be a community who stand, because we can do no other.

by David Paton-Williams