St Andrew’s Day
Sermon Preached by Reverend Michael Hillier on Sunday, 1 December 2024.
I have been thinking about what I might say today and decided not to focus as such on Andrew, whose feast day we are keeping. You have heard much about him before, and in your service booklet, you will find a summary of some of what we know about him. I will return to Andrew later but want to approach it this way.
It was 13.8 billion years ago, in an age named Deep Time, that an explosion of unimaginable power, size and force took place that we now know as the ‘Big Bang’. Our Universe and, more specifically for us, our planet Earth, are at the pointy end of that drama of so long ago.
With unimaginable speed and blinding light, that tiniest piece of matter expanded in all directions, filling the space it created with swirling gases and, eventually, small particles of matter.
And then, if that were not miraculous and amazing, something even more miraculous began to happen. Those tiniest particles filling that ever-growing space were attracted to each other.
Slowly, bit by bit, over succeeding billions of years, these growing lumps of bare rock and gases continued to increase in size, eventually forming billions of suns, planets, and galaxies—all based on attraction.
About 4.5 billion years ago, our planet Earth began to form, eventually reaching the size it is today by gathering up and drawing to itself more and more particles of dust and matter. In the freezing conditions of space, this molten ball’s surface began to cool rapidly, forming the crust as we know it with its super-heated core that occasionally vents in volcanic activity even today.
It has all been made possible by this Law of Attraction.
And now, here we are, as humans, having evolved at about one minute to midnight. The Law of Attraction has continued to grow in new ways and become something we call ‘love’, which draws people together into the oneness and commitment we call Marriage and friendship.
Along this path of friendship and, more profoundly, love leading to Marriage, there have been small but essential steps in the evolving Law of Attraction. The early 20th-century anthropologist Margaret Mead was once asked when she thought civilisation had begun. Her response was when a healed femur was found. That meant someone, or some small group, had protected and fed this person while their broken femur slowly healed. This attraction began with particles and evolved into something new: care, friendship, and even love.
Much later, in the 11th and 12th centuries of the present millennium, this would evolve into chivalric, courtly love. Love continues to grow, even today.
Your love for your spouse, whether living or departed, for your children and friends, has travelled a long way since those first two tiny particles of inert matter 13.8 billion years ago. Yet, it is based on the same principle. We can see this not just in the growth of physical matter, with particles attracted to each other, but also in the attraction of evolving spiritual and emotional development, which complements and deepens the physical.
Isn’t all that truly, truly wondrous and miraculous?
So why this, this morning? Well, each Sunday, we hear recited near the beginning of our Service, the Two Great Commandments. They were given to us by Jesus as a response to a question He was asked, and they were initially based on separate verses and ideas in the Old Testament. Whether they had been brought together by the time of Jesus is uncertain. No matter; He does tie them together.
We are to love God with our whole being, to love our neighbour, and then the critical rider – as we love ourselves. That is something that is sometimes forgotten. It is loving ourselves in a healthy, not selfish way. Narcissistic self-love is not intended.
These words of Jesus come from Mark 12.28–31 and are also found in Matthew (22.34-40) and Luke (10.25-28). Contrast that with words just before this in Mark concerning payment of taxes to Caesar: ‘Whose head on the coin is it?’ We delight in Jesus’ quick, sharp response to that.
That vignette of ‘payment to Caesar’ and how it is slyly put, with its intention of catching Jesus out, grates, doesn’t it? It is everything but attraction and love. It speaks of malice and, underneath that, fear. Jesus has been turning their world upside down, with power and moral authority shifting from these religious leaders. A new world is becoming—a world with love as its basis.
Many today would see that idea of love at the universe’s core as it has evolved and become as silly, even childish. ‘You have your little fantasies, Michael, while we get on with living in the real world and dealing with our real problems. The world is a hard, scrabble place where the unworldly get run over. Sometimes by a bus.’
In response to that view, let me ask a question or two: If this were true, what is life’s meaning?
Or, in particular, what’s the meaning of your life? Why are you here on earth? What is the purpose of your life? Is it simply to make money? Is it merely to perpetuate the human race with children? Are we simply here waiting for death to visit us? Get it over with?
I suggest that Jesus’ response to the Scribe with the Two Great Commandments is an
intellectually satisfying answer to life’s meaning, for it goes to the heart of the Universe as it unfolds. And who knows what new and deeper forms of attraction and love God has in mind for us as we take the following steps, whatever they may be? It is beyond our imagination!
So, on this path, what next step can you and I take to respond to what seems to lie at the heart of the Universe: this physical, emotional and spiritual dimension that we name attraction and love?
One response is profound gratitude. Gratitude to God, the Universe itself, each other, and those who have gone before us. Find ways to express that gratitude. Express it in your prayers to God, and express it in words to family, friends, and even strangers. Express it in grace before meals for the food you are about to eat from the earth. Write it to your spouse or someone else, living or departed, as gratitude for all they have been in your life. Have a thankful attitude to life, no matter what.
Indeed, attraction and love lie at the heart of our universe. Further, I think we see God’s love for us expressed in creation itself and the Father reaching out to us in the life of Jesus and His death for us on that Cross and resurrection. A love so great that it willingly makes the ultimate sacrifice. And from this grows our love for God, our neighbour and ourselves.
Andrew, who lived 2,000 years ago, had a small inkling of this. He could see this love in Jesus, was drawn to it, and wanted to share this good news with others. He was a fisherman and possibly only semi-literate or even illiterate. But he glimpsed something in Jesus that expanded his vision and, indeed, his heart. He understood what this universe and life were about and wanted to share this with others. And that, too, is yours and my task. Sharing that good news.