HOMILY: SUNDAY 25 ‘B’ 2018

The season of Party Political Conferences has arrived.  And, perhaps this may be rather a surprise, but there is something that always happens on the edges of these Conferences that is worth noting in connection with today’s Gospel.  I mean the ‘photo-opportunities’ that politicians engineer to get themselves popular – that extraordinary ritual of kissing babies and cuddling young children. Now what is very striking, if you think about it, is that in these photo-opportunities, the babies kissed and the young children made much of are nearly always HELD UP to the politician’s eye-level by their parents.   The great and the good – and the not so good – don’t demean themselves by bending over the pram or getting down to the toddler’s level.

By contrast, what Jesus does – as we hear in today’s Gospel – is quite different.  He bends down, or he may kneel down, so as to be able to be on the same level as the child – and then he will give him or her a big hug or he will sit down with the child on his lap.  What Jesus does is all the more striking because the society and culture of Jesus’ time was in no way ‘child-centered’ like ours.  As one of the commentaries on today’s Gospel puts it:  ‘In the world of Jesus, children did not count. They were “nobodies”’.  And then Jesus makes clear the significance of his action by what he says.  He tells the assembled company: ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes ME’.  Jesus puts himself at the lowest level – the welcome we give to a child is the measure of the welcome we give to Jesus.   And more than that – Jesus says that the welcome we give to a child is the measure of the welcome we give not only to him, but also to the one who sent him: God the Father himself.  The extraordinary truth is: God has made himself ‘little’ for our sake –   it is the truth of the Manger at Bethlehem.  Or, as the Church Fathers delighted in putting it – picking up a phrase from Isaiah – in the person of the Christ Child, the Lord has ‘shortened’, has made small, his Word – his Incarnate Word, Jesus..

Jesus, putting himself on the same level as a small child– identifying himself, really, in a way, with a small child – gives us a very unnerving lesson in humility.     For most of us, humility is very difficult.  It goes against the grain.   And it is a virtue that is also much misunderstood.  It is certainly not about making oneself a doormat for others to walk over – or assuming a kind of cringing personality like Charles Dickens’ Uriah Heep.  What it does mean, though, in our social life and also very particularly in our life as a Parish community, is letting go of the sense that we may be indispensible.   We show the good side of humility, for example, when we are willing to step aside on occasion from doing this or that job – which we may unconsciously have come to regard almost as our fief – and instead let someone else have a share in that activity or sphere of responsibility.

In Parish life, this is so important – so that those who have arrived in the parish more recently or those whose gifts can enrich some aspect of parish life – may feel welcome and not rebuffed or sidelined.   And it is necessary for the well-being of the parish’s future – so that, as far as possible, the various spheres of activity in the parish are renewed and stay vibrant and effective. Speaking personally, I am well aware that humility is not, and has never been, something I am much good at.  But, as I told the Parish Pastoral Council this past week, I do at least recognise that the time has come for me to begin ‘bowing out’ of the parish.  I am aware that I need to step aside some time within the next year.  I have talked about this with Bishop Alan and he has agreed that the time for this is now right. So I hope that, as regards what I have tried to say today, it will not have been a case simply of empty words, but rather that what I have preached I am at least trying and intending myself to put into practice!