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WEN FOR ALL SEASONS Bethany Presbyterian Church
} dol 1:1 - 2:5 Lafayette, Indiana
January: 14, +973 John M. Buchanan

Sir Thomas More, "The Man For All Seasons" in Robert Bolt's play and the excellent
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motion picture of the same name, was one of the most_popular and influential men of his day.
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Henry VIII was King of England and Europe was embroiled in wars, intrigue, political and

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social ferment. \1n England Thomas More was respected by all, including the King, for his
integrity, wisdom and coura e.\ He tved comfortably, but not lavishly: fe was a Councilman

and therefore responsible for judicial decisions in the area of his estate, \ He was appointed

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Chancellor of all England at a very important time.
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King Henry was married to his brother's widow, Katherine. \Ihe wedding had been made

possible by a special Papal dispensation. \ aut Katherine bore no sons who Vived:| Henry grew

tired of her and had fallen in love with a beautiful young lady in his court, Anne Boleyn.

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Henry went back to the Pope appealing for another adspensation: lini s time an annulment of his
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marriage to Katherin on the grounds that it wasn't legal in the first place - so that he might
marry Anne.
But this time_the Pope refused.\ Henry and all of England were incense | Th people were

with their King:| the church - anxious to find a reason for pulling out of the Church of Rome -

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supported the King. \ Everyone favored the proposed marriage to Anne Boleyn - all but Sir

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Thomas Nore)\ He could not and would not support 1 t\ Rather than embarrass the King, to whom
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he was deeply loyal - and rather than compromise his conscience to which he was even more

deeply loyal, Sir Thomas resigned as Chancellor and asked only to be allowed to live quietly
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with his fanily.\\ The King. however, was put in a very awkward positon \ More than any other

man in the realm the opinions of Sir Thomas More wre_imporfant.

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The King tried everything to persuade Thomas More to change his_mind:\his friends and

finally his family begged him to compromise.\ Eventually he was_arrested, thrown in the Tower

of London, tried and beheaded for treason.

The play is the story of a man who stood head and shoulders above his peers because he
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could be pushed only so far:}he knew what was basic and irrevocable for him - and at that
point he was willing to take his stand.\ He was honest and courageous, but most of all -

timely.\ He sensed what the real and sometimes hidden issues of his day were:\pe chose the

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battlefield - the issue - and there took his stand.| He was "A Man for All Seasons".
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Think now about another story. | The place is Asia Minor, or what is now Western Turkey:
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the time - about 95 A.D.\ An old and beloved leader of the Christian Church in Asia Minor

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realized that it was an extremely crucial time for the Christian Faith) Tradition has it

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that John, the Author of the three small letters in the New Testament that bear his mame,

was one of the last individuals alive at the time who had actually seen and known Jesus of
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Nazareth. \ Robert Browning wrote a poem about him that captures the importance of this old

man to the early church, and the issue that was disturbing him - even on his death-bed..

"there is left on earth no one alive who knew - saw with his own_eyes and handled with his
own hands, that which was from the first, the Word of Lite.\ How wil] it be when none more
saith, 'I saw'?"

The real problem in Asia Minor at the time was Gnosticism, a vague, mystical religion
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that emphasized know) ecige and understanding as the way of salyation.\ There was no head-on
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conflict.) But *here was compromise and synthesis as Gnosticism and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

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came into contact. | Jesus was regarded as another source of knowledge: \the-Greet+e5s

accept his divinity - but not his humanity \ they would not accept the reality of human sin -
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and they were simply unconcerned about the deeply ethical quality of the Christian life

because of their overwhelming obsession with their own immortality.
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John became the man for all season:| he Saw what the issue was \ he understood that if
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that which is basic and irrevocable about Christian Faith was not written down - the faith would
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soon cease to be Christian.\ Under those conditions one would expect him to_have written a
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stirring polemic against the Gnostic heresy, or at least a detailed and lengthy explication

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of Christian doctrine. \ Instead he wrote three small letters - two of which are little more

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than notes.

Theologically, they are rather simple. \ The Gospel, dohn asserted, was real and not

speculativd. \"It was the& from the beginning” he wrote.\ The Gospel is relevant rather than
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other -worldly.= "We've heard it - seen it - felt it” he wrote. \ Tt has to do with the here

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and now - and not just some idea of immortality after death. WAnd it all hange on love -

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God's lyge for man:\God's nature as love - and the new life of love to be practiced in the

Christian community. \ The Gnostics didn't know anything about tht_part,and the old man dealt

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with them rather bluntly. | Later in his first letter he wrote: "If a man says he loves God,
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and hates his brother, he is a liar."

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€oming through it all is the message that Christians ~ if they were to surviwh as Chris-

tians - would have to become Men for Atl Seasons \ They would have to know what was basic in

their faith:{ and they would hage-to believe it in a way that was relevant to what was happening

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in thier world. \ That, in sum, is the essence of these three little letters.| The Gospel -

as it is believed and lived by individual Christians -must stand the_test of the vortd | It

must be timely - relevant -

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That idea is basic to Christian Faith in any age or season \ that is, that Christians are
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to be Christians in the world and not apart from it\ that Christians are to be involved tn

the vorld:\ reflecting what's happening in the world’\letting the world set the agenda for the

style of their faith.

That was John's style as he distilled the faith down into several simple maxims that could
stand the test of the gnostics \ It was Paul's style when he noted that he would beQtall things
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to all men. ' certainly that's what Jesus meant when he urged his disciples to be like salt
and light and leaven in the bread.\ None of those things are worth anything until they are

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applied to something else - tight to darkness \satt to food \ leaven to dough.

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An anonymous Second Centurey letter written to a man named Diognetus describes it rather

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well: "Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in Tocality or speech

cr in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use

some different language, nor practice an extraordinary kind of life...) But while they dwell
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in cities of Greeks and barbarians as the lot of each is cast and follow the native customs

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in dress and food _and the other arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizen-

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ship which they set forth, is marvelous and confessedly contradicts expectations... "aeiiTe

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That has been basic to Christian Faith from the beainning.\ And yet the history of the

Christian Church is often a different story altagether. \ The Church has spent much of its time
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either trying to force its agenda on the world in terms of raw political power ~ or beating

a hasty retreat from the world.| From the Papal insistence in the Middie_Ages that the worid

was the center of the universe and not the sun,\the arrogance of 19th century missionaries
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whe could not accept the mores and customs and beauty of people they wanted to saye,\to the

lingering, pathetic attempt to sneak the Cheistianfcriptures into the public schoois - even

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if through the back door - the Church has notorously insisted that it's agenda was best for

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the world. \ And when it hasn't been doing that it has been retreating into monasteries, or

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to worn-out, irrelevant beliefs that no one takes serjously anymore - things like,\"God is

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the fnswer”)- and the world is literally snapping back,("We forgot the question".

Our job is to take our world seriously:\ te take what is basic for us out into the world to
be believed and lived there - in the framework of what is happening and what is important

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there. \ We are to be Men For All Seasons ~ in particular, this season.

Now, there are a lot ofwys to describe and analyze “our season". \ 11's the age of

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technology, the age of anxiety:\a seson marked by revolution and the emergence of the thir

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world:\a season of racial conflict and moral upheaval and change in areas as traditional as

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parenthood and family. \in a recent book Anglican Bishop, John A. T. Robinson suggests that basic
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to any understanding of our age is the realization that we are living in the NEnd of the Stable

State.") It is the season of uncertainty - politically, economically, morally and especially

religiously \ "People are genuinely bewildered" }he weites\ (They feel they have lost their

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bearings - and that in the one area of life which they trusted would be an island oO security
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in a sea of change\ For religion told you what te believe, what to_do and what to expect.

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But with even that dissolving there is anxiety and not a little resentment - and a hankering
after fixed paints ~ however few". |(Ibid P. 16)
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Our season is one of uncertainty - revolution - chan e-\ And ?t cries out for a faith

that is alive to all of that:\a Gospet that can stand the test of the world:\and individual
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Christians who have the courage to cut the fat away from their religion and live honestly
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and relevantly in the world.
Yet Robinson was right: \the temptation to scurry after the security of a day now gone 1s

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very real. \ The most popular kinds of religion today are those that ignore the world and are

proud of it:\ that remain eloquently silent about the issues that constitute the world's

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agenda - issues that have to do with the life and health and well being of God's Children.

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I have observed, first with interest - and then with distress - the success here and

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throughout the nation ~ of Key 73 - a massive evangelistic effort to bring the Gospel to

every person an the continuent this year, \re's not that I'm oppased to that goal |\ Far
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be it.\ But I get_angry when I watch people falling all over each other to_give money for

a bill-board that urges everyone to pray at noon \and not only ignoring - but opposing -
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Christian involvement in the Community Emergency Fund - because that's where the world is.
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The season cries out for relevant Christians who are willing to be Christians on the world's

agenda -which today includes war,\and the use of bombing as an instrument of diplomacy,
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abortion\ health and welfare, \and the whole matter of national priorities\ And the world's

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agony is answered by a campaign that urges churches to ring their bells and Christians toot
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their horns at noon.
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The tatest Gallup poll reveals that fewer Americans than ever see the Church as an
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influential and relevant force in our natioanal Life.| And everytime I see that bill board

on 18th street I know exactly why.
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If the worid does set the agenda if we are to be "Men for this season" = what is it
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that we take with us? \ wat are those irrevocable basics for which we must live and stand

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and die? \ Taking a lead from John in the first century, we know that it is - or must be ~

brief ~ clear - sharp - understandabte. \ The season 1s too treacherous to allow a fot of
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dogina - a whole train-—load of theological Freight. \ In ore of his last books Bishop James

Pike confessed that he was learning to believe less in terms of quantity - but more, in terms
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of the things that really mattered.
What is it we have te bring to the world?
—_— Love is real
mom Jesus Christ is alive
———» Human life is to be wees as he defined it.

I would frame it in three very bref assertions:

leads me ‘\that's what I sense never changes and what this and every

season asks af us. \Again to borrow pobinson's words «(The love of God - this is man's
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ultimate environment, what he is made from and what he is made for... love is not only what

ought to be the ultimate reality but what is\¥or in John's words 7K “Herein is love: not
that we love God but that he loves us."
And Jesus Christ - whose name we use - and whom we call Lord:\ nore than_a_ggod man and

excel lent teacher: |more than memory and exanple:\A presence - a power with us - freedom from

death or fear of death: \friend, brother, companion, prodder, stimulator, comforter sometimes
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and at other times disturber.
And life - my life - your life \t is defined by hin:\he is the mrodet ‘\as he loved so
ought we:\joy because we are safe and free, but compassion and heart-break because the world
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still has a long way to go. \ Commitment to the world in hts name, but a loose commitment,
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because no set back, no defeat in the world can separate me - us ~-from the love that
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sustains and heals and gives life itself.

Thomas More lost his life for being "A Man for All seasons". \ sesus Christ was
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crucified - and part_of the reason was that he insisted on doing his living and loving in the

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world, whe@ people lived and married and bore _children and fought and got sick and felt grief

and died. \ He died - at least _in part ~ precisely because he ws relevant.

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So we need not expect that it's a Simple and easy thing to be relevant Christians.

Certainly when we're confronted with a bombed hospital in Hanoi, or a young sensitive
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Christian who wonders if killing another man is really a viable moral option - certainly its

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easier to talk in platitudes s [and it's also irrevelant.

God cails us to be his people ~ ee while we are together \ but more_importantly out

there when we are Tying in his world. | ana in this age of uncertainty it's not always

possible to define precisely what that will mean \ Because the world is setting the agenda.

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Our styles will differ - we will be as marvelously

free and as contrary to expectation as

were our brothers and sisters in the second century.
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But pray God, let us be honest and faithful Nien for All seasons \ii Men for this

Season. AMEN

Father, it's always been easy to be religious: but it's never been easy to be an honest

christian. Help us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen