Boxing Day
Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: 2 Chronicles 24:20-22; Psalm 119:161-168; Acts 7:51-end; Matt 10:17-22
It goes without saying that St Stephen, often given the epiphet ‘first martyr’, is the archetype of Christian martyrs. We see something of the manner of this example Christian death in that he dies asking forgiveness for those who murder him. Our readings are so arranged to show that this isn’t the only possible exit from this world, though I think we can perhaps forgive Zechariah his cry for vengeance in the frustration of justice in his murder. And when we hear of the murder of innocent people, we probably also feel a tug towards ‘vengeance is mine – saith the Lord’, rather than forgive them what they do.
It’s intriguing to reflect that Luke, the writer of Acts, is the only Gospel that records Jesus also calling for the forgiveness of his executioners. Perhaps the magnanimity of St Stephen’s last words was so moving that St Luke did not want Jesus, in his Gospel, to be outshone by this unreasonable generosity of spirit, and so gave the same words to Jesus. Otherwise, Stephen is following Christ in deed and in word as the exemplar disciple.
It would be possible today to spend a great deal of time outlining just a few of the virtuous lives who have faced death in faith with equal courage. The truth is that certainly every year since the death of Jesus, a Christian, and often thousands, has been murdered for her or his faith. And Christianity continues to be objectively the most persecuted world faith.
This is not our reality and as Christians in the UK it’s all too easy to be half-hearted, reluctant or occasional in our faith. The fact that boxing day follows on quite immediately from Christmas is actually rather helpful. Christmas is the celebration of grace. A reminder that there is nothing we do to merit God’s presence among us, or God’s salvation. It is a freely given gift, unlike those of that other saint, Nicholas, who has his naughty and nice list. He is more of a Zechariah figure.
But Boxing Day is a reminder of the cost of discipleship: That following Jesus demands everything from us, even our lives; We must take up our cross and follow him.
Discipleship is a freely given response to the free gift that has been received; ‘Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly’ But for all that Christianity deals only in what is freely given the cost has been terrible over the millenia. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the writing of the twentieth-century martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Shortly before the Second World War he wrote of the Cost of Discipleship and railed against what he denounced as the ‘cheap grace’ offered by the church.
His essential point was that grace is free. It’s the gift of God, which we do nothing to earn. However, should we grasp the enormity of this gift our response should be total. In Isaac Watts famous words: “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
What he disliked was the way the church treated grace as cheap. The suggestion that there are small acts by which we earn salvation. So both by demanding that people do something to be Christian – Going to church, giving money, volunteering; but also not demanding a total response: a change of heart, repentance, truly taking up your cross and following Jesus. We cheapen grace. A Boxing Day sale. Placing conditions on grace, and actually very light conditions, Bonhoeffer saw as a total betrayal of the Gospel. As if the kingdom of God were to be sold on the same basis as we allow entry to Church schools.
Grace is free but never cheap. And in his resistance to the Nazis Bonhoeffer’s faith demanded the ultimate sacrifice. This is hard for us because it’s so much easier to run churches if grace is cheap. You can suggest that people really ought to give more, they ought to volunteer on the tea and coffee rota. The idea that you buy in to faith is attractive, It makes people feel like they’ve earned their place, like they belong. And it makes sure certain things get done.
If I say God has done this nice thing for you, you really ought to give a little back; come along on a Sunday morning – and there’s coffee; It’s good for your family, for your mental health; that sounds reasonable. Instead we say that God has given everything for you. You owe God absolutely everything. Which is quite overwhelming. Just a little bit all or nothing. Christianity – at least technically – does not work very well as a hobby.
So for us who have just celebrated Christmas, Boxing Day is the fly in the soup. We celebrate the gift of God among us: Yea Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning. But it comes like the sowers seed, scattered on rocks, among weeds and on good soil. For our response to God’s love is only fully discovered on the road of discipleship – The proof of Christmas Day’s pudding is only served on Boxing Day. Amen.