A sermon for St Laurence's day preached by Revd Michael Wallace

This reflection for St Laurence's Day was preached by Michael Wallace with help from Emma Halgren. It was part of worship prepared for Monday morning 10 August 2009 as we were praying this week for Australia and New Zealand through the ecumenical prayer cycle. Find the full liturgy here.

Reflection for Australia NZ service August 10th 2009

St Laurence
As you know this week the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle remembers Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Today we also remember St. Laurence who was martyred at Rome in 258.

In this morning’s Gospel Jesus says, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’

Through his actions in the face of imperial power and in his death, Saint Laurence bore much fruit for our understanding of what we should value most highly.

One of the seven deacons in Rome during the time of Pope Sixtus the second, Laurence was in charge of distribution of alms to the poor.
In 258, the emperor Valerian put to death numerous priests and deacons. When Pope Sixtus was beheaded in this persecution, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence surrender to him the riches of the Church.
Lawrence asked the prefect for three days to gather together the church’s wealth. He then worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property as possible to the poor. On the third day he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church, he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering and said, "Behold the treasures of the Church!"
This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom on August 10th.
Lawrence defied the oppressive power of his day. In spite of the threat of death he kept his focus on serving Christ and his people. Even though the church lost a deacon it gained encouragement to resist the powers of evil. Laurence is remembered for his courage and his focus on not only serving but also valuing the poor.

Laurence’s life challenges us to ask about our own lives:
Are we clear about our role in caring for the poor and marginalised as the treasures of the church?
Are we prepared to serve and follow Christ even when it may lead us into persecution?

In our times of trial, will we be grains of wheat bearing fruit?

Mary McKillop
In this morning’s reading from 2 Corinthians we heard:
‘The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.’

Emma will now share with us about an Australian woman who sowed bountifully for God amongst the poor and suffering- Blessed Mary McKillop.

Mother Mary MacKillop
On August 8 2009, Christians around the world remembered the life and witness of Mother Mary MacKillop, a woman of Australia who died on this date in 1909. An educator and advocate of children, Mother Mary suffered at the hands of her own church for her convictions about the education of the children committed to her charge. She founded an Australian religious order which was responsible for the establishment of schools, orphanages, and shelters for women. She was beautified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. Today her witness is celebrated by Roman Catholics and beyond, and by the Christian churches of Australia and beyond.


Witnessing to Christ in New Zealand and Australian cultures
In Australia and New Zealand the churches witness to Christ in the context of powerful landscapes and fragile cultures.

In the process of colonisation indigenous cultures have been deliberately wiped out, impoverished, or sidelined. Indigenous people have been persecuted for speaking their languages, holding their beliefs and living in traditional ways. Sacred places have been confiscated and desecrated. The seeds of faith in indigenous cultures were not recognised.

The settler cultures of Australia and New Zealand are fragile too. Colonisation has transplanted European cultures, expectations and religious practices, but left many with shallow roots in both the old world and the new. Systems based on oppressing indigenous people and exploiting Creation have slowly begun to be recognised as unjust and unsustainable.

More than two centuries after it was first introduced by European missionaries, the seed of the Gospel struggles to take root in the hearts and minds of many New Zealanders and Australians.

The fragility of our cultures creates a situation where the demands and values of commerce can override everything else. Commerce threatens to fill the space of culture and religion, and sideline history and shared meaning.

Yet in this context a powerful spiritual yearning still arises. Despite their highly secular worldview and alienation from faith, people want to be part of an heroic and inspiring story, to believe in the kind of self-sacrifice that is displayed in the life of St. Laurence and Blessed Mary McKillop.

ANZAC Day
A challenging opportunity for Christian witness in our countries today is ANZAC day.
A phenomenon has recently arisen where young New Zealanders and Australians are finding meaning and inspiration in the stories of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, known as the ANZACS.
Joining forces for the World War One battle of Gallipoli on April 25, 1916, the actions of the young men in the Australia New Zealand Army Corps demonstrated the values of courage, loyalty and self-sacrifice that were to form a crucial part of the self-identity of both countries at a crucial stage of their development as nations.
Reclaiming the heroic stories of their forebears, and filled with a desire for identification with the highest values of those who served, young people in their thousands now come forward to honour the sacrifice of those women and men, indigenous and settler who laid down their lives in the First World War and subsequent conflicts.
Although ANZAC day is a national holiday in both countries, for decades most people avoided ANZAC day observances due to concerns about glorifying war, or because they failed to see its relevance.
As Christians how do we engage with the young people who come to church once a year often at dawn and in bad weather for an ANZAC day service?

How can we connect the spiritual yearning that we see on ANZAC day with the lives of St. Laurence and Blessed Mary McKillop and to point people toward Christ?

Conclusion
How can we preach the gospel in these two countries with their myriad indigenous cultures and 200-year-old settler cultures? How can we preach the gospel in places of suppression of indigenous spiritualities and of transplanted Christianity? Where commerce would take priority over everything else?

What we can do is share the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that celebrates Creation, that acknowledges the injustices of colonisation, that honours and challenges our fragile cultures, that connects us with inspiring lives like Laurence and Mary McKillop, in a way that gives us the correct perspective on wealth. We need to remind ourselves that God loves us and that we should love one another.

We can remind people that there is meaning to be found on days other than just ANZAC day. We can invite people to offer their lives not for some military gain for a colonial or imperial power, but to gain life in its fullness. We can show that through the love of Christ and service to others we can discover the true value of life.

To lose your life for your country or for your friends is to lose your life heroically, but to lose your life for Christ is to win something far greater than remembrance or identity, it is to become part of the life of God. Eternal life, God’s unlimited love.

‘The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.’

Collect for St Laurence
Almighty God, you called your deacon Laurence to serve you with deeds of love, and to be a wise steward of the treasures of your church; Grant that we, following his example, may fulfil your commandments by defending and supporting the poor, and by loving you with all our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Amen