Preacher: Revd Sarah Archer
Date: 22/10/2023
Before I begin I’d like to say thank you to Graham for his kind invitation to preach this morning. Graham and I first met when we both worked in the Diocese of Portsmouth: I’m now Vicar at St Albans North Harrow. As some of you may already know, I’m also the niece of the late Roy and Margaret Archer, who worshipped here for 20 years. Sadly Margaret died during lockdown and even David, her brother wasn’t permitted to attend her funeral. Roy moved away to Chichester soon after to be closer to his daughter, and his funeral took place there a few months ago. With us today is my father, Barrie, Roy’s brother, and Margaret’s brother David. I know how much they would love to hear your memories of Roy and Margaret after the service.
When I grew up, I often went to see Roy & Margaret perform in plays and musicals. I’m actually not the greatest fan of either musicals or amateur dramatics but I really enjoyed their performances. Part of that was their company, the Hertford Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society, who were definitely a cut above the average. They also did panto from time to time and even if you, like me don’t much like Panto, community panto is a different, and far more hilarious ball game.
But I think there was something else in operation too. It was the joy of seeing people you know and love bring another character alive, while still being recognisably my beloved Aunt and Uncle. And not only that but somehow features of my aunt and uncle were brought out more strongly when they were playing another part.
I was reflecting on this and thought it was like our Christian calling. We’re supposed to play a part. We’re supposed to imitate Christ: to steep ourselves in the script that is the life of Jesus, to better know and understand and play our part: to become more like Jesus, and yet still remain recognisably ourselves. And perhaps to become like ourselves.
Even people who aren’t Christian might see Jesus as a good role model, one to follow. But if, as I often feel, we’re not all that good at this it may make us wonder if we’re really of any use to God. And if we look at the terrible problems in our world and think that solutions to them depend on us being more Christlike then we’d be forgiven for thinking we’re in deep trouble. But don’t despair. There is encouragement to be found in our first reading today.
The prophet Isaiah is writing about someone called Cyrus. And for those of you not conversant with 6th Century BC middle eastern history I’ll sketch it out a little bit for you. In 597 BC Jerusalem has been conquered, the Temple destroyed, and the Israelites taken into exile in Babylon.
The Boney M Song By the Rivers of Babylon, was based on psalm 137, composed shortly after this exile. The psalm describes the Israelites weeping and mourning as they sat down by the waters of Babylon and remembered Zion, or in other words, Jerusalem. Their Babylonian Captors demanded that they sing one of their songs. “But How”, they ask themselves, “can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” And so the people of Israel remain in captivity until Cyrus comes along. He was born about 590 BCE in what is now Iran. A pagan, he founded the Achaemenian empire, and then in 539 he became King of Persia, and in the first year of his reign he lets the Israelites return to their homeland and rebuild their temple. It’s a very big deal in Jewish history. Cyrus was a pagan, he wasn’t a believer himself, some say he was a Zoroastrian, which is a monotheistic faith, but as we’ve heard in Isaiah, God was at work in him and through him to bring about his purposes.
So I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to believe that wherever we go, God is already at work there. He’s at work in our world in ways we cannot perceive using people who are totally unaware. If we do know Him, our responsibility is to try and find out what he’s up to and join in with it, and join in with those working towards his purposes, whoever they may be and whatever they might believe.
I actually see that pattern too in the life of my uncle Roy. He hadn’t been a Christian anything like as long as Margaret, but even before he came to faith, God’s fingerprints could be seen in Roy’s life. For instance, after gaining his own Open University degree, he didn’t keep it to himself but he went on to be a tutor.
And Roy’s great love was Shakespeare: and Shakespeare’s writing is soaked in moral themes as Shakespeare’s own life was saturated with Christian thought. In Roy’s superb rendering of significant Shakespeare roles he helped, I believe, to spread the rumour of God, a God of boundless creativity, a God who loves and understands his creation in all its complexity, light and shadows.
I do still think though, that there are many more ways we can be used by God when we do know and love him. And that’s true whatever stage of life we’re in. Even if we feel we have less to give, through ageing or infirmity, God through his guidance can give us new opportunities to serve.
That was certainly the case for Roy and Margaret when the time came for them to step down from treading the boards. They then embraced a new purpose in participating in ‘Open the Book’ the storytelling project for schools where the bible is shared with children using drama.
Drama has the power to draw us in. I believe we are made for drama because God is a story writer and we’re made in his image. But God is more than just an author. He didn’t just author creation, but became an actor within it, He is the one who stepped onto his own page, his own stage to become part of our story, our drama. He didn’t stay just working behind the scenes, through people like Cyrus.
And when he came, he came not putting on an act, not pretending to be human, not simply imitating the best features of our humanity. But instead in that mysterious incarnation he brought all his godhead into all of our humanity. He came and he lived and he loved and he walked into suffering, not running away when the spotlight of his goodness proved too bright for the darkness to bear. He held his place on the stage of life as his enemies circled to destroy him and bring down the curtain of darkness on the King of Love.
But we are here today as witness to the fact that after they appeared to have succeeded, there was yet another scene to come. We are here today to remember and re-enact that great drama. The drama which in the end dealt the fatal blow not on Jesus but on everything that stands between us and the best performance of our lives. That of being the person God created us to be.
So what will be our part in God’s continuing and unfolding drama?
Well: none of our roles will be the same. But we might get a clue from Roy & Margaret. When ageing took hold it must have been hard to face the fact that they needed to leave the stage. They could have just left it there and simply become spectators. But they didn’t. There was no prestige or fame to be found in the open the book schools work, and I’m sure it came with many challenges of its own, but through it they played their part sowing seeds in the lives of God’s precious children for a harvest they would never live to see.
At Roy’s Funeral I read these words: All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.
We are all called to play our part, and unlike our jobs and careers, on the stage of life we never get to retire. Jesus was and is our model and sets the bar high for us, especially those in his penultimate scenes: serving his friends by washing their feet, and even in the midst of extreme suffering ensuring his mother was cared for by his friend.
So as we gather this and every week around this table to remember and represent that great tragedy and victory, let us pray that God by his Spirit will show us where and how we are being called to act in his drama, and also to recall the great final feast in the kingdom, where with Roy and Margaret and all those who have served in God’s great cast we will finally and flawlessly inhabit the role for which we were created.