The sermon discusses the concept of 'steadfast service' as a fundamental aspect of following Jesus, who is portrayed as the 'anonymous Christ' present in our interactions with others. It emphasizes the importance of living selflessly and serving others, while interpreting Jesus' teachings about the kingdom of God as a spiritual realm that should be manifested in our actions on Earth. The call to action is to identify and embrace the need for healing and service within our communities, reflecting the living presence of Christ in our daily lives.

1. STEADFAST SERVICE
A sermon delivered at the Liberal Catholic Church of Saint Francis,
Gordon, New South Wales, Australia,
on 15 July 2007, being the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
by The Rev. Dr Ian Ellis-Jones
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.’” (Mt 16:24)
Today is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, with the intent “Steadfast Service”.
Our Gospel reading is taken from the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus
speaks about what some have called the “Anonymous Christ”. Now, in the
Liberal Catholic Church we have had all different types of Christs over the years
… Jesus Christ, the Master Christ, the Living Christ, the Cosmic Christ, and, of
course, the Lord Maitreya. I am aware that some of those are or may be said to
be one and the same. It doesn’t matter. However, here we have another Christ,
the “Anonymous Christ”, but, in a sense it is the same Living Christ from whom or
which we claim to draw the central inspiration of our work.
In this Gospel passage Jesus refers to himself in the third person as the “Son of
Man”. Now, that is the title most used by Jesus - indeed over 60 times - and used
only by Jesus himself to describe himself. However, those words do not imply
that Jesus was claiming to be God. Jesus never really explains the meaning of
the title “Son of Man”, but it appears to be linked with what he saw as his mission
in life, for Jesus saw himself as a representative human being through whom
God was acting in an important way. There is no doubt that Jesus believed he
had a special message, and it was tied up with his understanding of what is
meant by the “Kingdom of God”, which I’ll come to shortly.

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Jesus, we are told, was “a man approved of God” (Acts 2:22, emphasis added).
He himself preached what is described in the New Testament as the “Gospel of
God” (Mk 1:14). He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15; cf Mt 4:17, 10:7, Lk 4:43).
Note, not the “Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, but the “Gospel of God”. This is
the answer to all those Christian evangelists who would have us believe that
there was no “Christian Gospel” until after Jesus had died.
Now, Jesus may not be God in any exclusive or unique sense, but he must
surely be more than a teacher and moral exemplar. Yes, he is much more than
that. Our Gospel reading for today tells us that the Personality of Jesus, through
whom the Living Christ expresses Itself, can be experienced as a living
presence, for he comes to us, and visits us, in our home and in our community.
Yes, the Christ comes to us through an idea, a word we hear, and a person who
is suffering or joyful. We meet this Christ in our interactions with others. Everyone
we meet, everyone we serve, is in the image of Jesus. Roman Catholics
understand this so much better than Protestants. Yes, the Anonymous Christ, as
it is known, comes to us in so many ways, and we fail to recognize that Jesus’
incarnation, the very manifestation and Self-expression of the Living Christ,
continues all the time, in us and in other people. We read in Matthew 25:34-40:
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my
Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of
the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and
you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison
and you came to visit me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger
and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or
in prison and go to visit you?”
The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

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Jesus’ followers were originally known as “people of the way”. Jesus, in his vision
of the Anonymous Christ, offers us a vision and a challenge. The call to follow is
not a call to worship Jesus. He never sought nor wanted that. No, the Way of
Jesus is a call to follow his path, to live as he lived, and to serve. “Steadfast
service” is the Intent for today. The word “steadfast”, according to The Macquarie
Dictionary, means, among other things, “fixed in direction”, “firm in purpose,
resolution, faith, attachment”, and “unwavering”. Now, in the words of our Collect
for today we are to show forth our love of and for God in “continual service of our
brethren”. That requires strong faith in the Omnipresence and Omnipotence of
God, firm resolution and a genuine desire on our part to be of real service to
others as Jesus was in his lifetime.
We read in John’s Gospel, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (Jn 12:21). This Church
has always focused, quite properly, more on the Living Christ than on the Jesus
of history. Nevertheless, the man Jesus was, indeed is, the embodiment of
“steadfast service”. As far as I’m concerned, all we really need to know about
Jesus and what is, or at least ought to be, our vision and challenge, can be found
in one verse of the Bible, namely, Luke 9:11, which reads:
When the crowds learned [where Jesus was], they followed him; and he
welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and cured those
who had need of healing.
First, the crowds followed Jesus. The Lord Christ continues to speak to our time,
saying, “Follow me”. One of my favourite Christian books is In His Steps written
by Congregational minister Charles M Sheldon and first published in 1896.
Sheldon, a leading exponent of the Social Gospel, challenges us to ask
ourselves, in every situation in which we find ourselves placed, “What would
Jesus do?” That’s a good start, for, as Markus van Alphen has written, Jesus,
metaphysically, “stands for the personality of every human being who treads the
path of purification” (“Jesus Christ and his True Disciples”, Esoteric Christianity
E-Magazine, July 2002, <http://www.lcc.cc/ecem/vanalphenmf/jesus.htm>).

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Secondly, Jesus welcomed the crowds. No one was turned away. That is why we
do not turn away any person who comes here with good intentions. That is why
we erect no barriers around our altars. However, more is required of us than that.
We must make sure we erect no barriers outside this place as well.
Thirdly, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God. That kingdom was not of this world
(see Jn 18:36), for Jesus gave the words “Kingdom of God” new meaning. The
Kingdom of God, for Jesus, was a spiritual kingdom, not a physical organization,
and it was both a present and future reality all at the same time. Jesus formed a
community that strove, in steadfast service, to be a living model of God’s reign.
We accept the Kingdom of God by building it here on earth. Thus, the Kingdom
of God, sensibly interpreted, is not some supernatural event that will supposedly
come to pass when this world comes to an end but a kingdom of this world in
which there is justice, equality and freedom for all.
Fourthly, Jesus cured those who needed healing. Our task here is to provide
opportunities for healing. We come here as broken, damaged people in need of
healing. The healing word of Jesus, expressed most powerfully in his great
outpouring of suffering love which, in all respects, is the very same ongoing
cosmic sacrifice of the Living Christ, still has the power to change lives.
I am reminded of something the Presbyterian Samuel Angus wrote in his
wonderful book Jesus in the Lives of Men (1933):
Jesus is not accredited to us today by his miracles, or by a virgin birth, or by a
resurrection from an underworld, or by a reanimation of his body from the grave,
or by fulfillment of prophecies; he is accredited by his long train of conquests
over the loyalties of men, and chiefly by the immediate, intimate and inevitable
appeal made by him to everything that is best and God-like in each of us, and by
his ability to “make men fall in love with him”, and “to win the world to his fair
sanctities”.
Out of gratitude to God, we are told in our Epistle reading (taken from Romans
12) to present ourselves as a “living sacrifice”. We do that by living selflessly for
others and, as a result, we not only encounter the Anonymous Christ, we also

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share our saving experience of the Anonymous Christ with those with whom we
come into contact. The message of the apostle Paul, and Jesus himself, is that
we must re-surrender and rededicate ourselves every day, “fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord” (Rom 12:11). We must remain ever open to truth and ever
willing to change, no matter what. We must work, in steadfast service, to bring
about the Kingdom of God on earth. Amen.
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