A reading from the First letter of Paul to Timothy

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, and who judged me faithful enough to call me into his service even though I used to be a blasphemer and did all I could to injure and discredit the faith. Mercy, however, was shown me, because until I became a believer I had been acting in ignorance; and the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus. Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life. To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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Let’s look back at the second thing Paul says here “I used to be a blasphemer and did all I could to injure the faith”.  But look what happened to St Paul.  He is one of the major scripture writers. In the opinion of some he is the second most important apostle after St Peter.

But Paul, when he was called Saul would have been called an anti-Christian extremist in modern times.  After Jesus ascended into Heaven the early Christians were at first seen as a funny little club called “The Way”, it was seen initially as a sect of Judaism.  The Scribes and Pharisees and the leading Jewish people thought it would simply die out once Jesus was out of sight.

But it didn’t, the followers of Jesus proved to be more and more passionate in sharing his teaching and more and more people were being converted.  Paul was an important person. He was from a large, and probably prominent Jewish family, he was a very devout Jew.  He was the most well-known persecutor of the very early Christians, even seeing them put to death, he is known to be present at the very first Christian martyrdom.

Of course we have the famous story of him being blinded by a great light on the way to Damascus, and hearing the voice of Jesus while he was blind, he became a Christian himself.  But before that happened, no one would have believed that in the future he would be a Christian leader.

He found his new mission in life a difficult one, he was put in prison twice, he was shipwrecked he suffered with his health and ultimately, he died because of his faith, having been beheaded in Rome.

Paul was a leader.  Leaders take on responsibility, they could be a leader in a small way, perhaps a senior member of the student council, or a local politician.  They might be Wayne Rooney or Sam Allardyce, they might be the lead violinist in an orchestra, they could be Theresa May or Barak Obama, they could be a doctor in charge of a team or even a member of a school leadership team.

A well known saying that stems from the Church but now has common use is “all saints have a past all sinners have a future”.  It’s sad when people look at decisions politicians have made in the past and they use it as evidence that they are a bad person. That decision could be a personal one, a professional one or a political one.

Like all of us, those who lead us can make mistakes and take bad advice.  Grammar schools were scrapped years ago but now the government are investigating bringing them back.Some people would say this is a wrong move, others would welcome it. But have we learned that the country is worse off without Grammar schools?

In 2007 Theresa May said Gordon Brown should call an election as he became prime minister when Tony Blair resigned, he did not lead the party to an election victory.  In 2016, Mrs May became Prime Minister in the same way.  She has, in the past nine years, obviously learned that the constitution does not require a general election when the prime minister changes.

Whatever a leader does, a leader in whatever field, and this could even mean the leaders in your own family, your parents, there will be people saying it’s a wrong decision.  But do we ever pray for our leaders, do we ever pray that they can look back on the past, learn the lessons and move forward, taking us all forward with them?

We all have a leader of some sort to pray for, let us do that now.

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Lord God

We pray for all in authority

May they be diligent in serving others and not serving themselves

May they be mindful of the Gospel values and the person of Jesus Christ

May they be seeking a place in heaven and act worthily

May they be respectful of individuals and act justly

May they be gracious to those who oppose them

And may they be an inspiration to us should we found ourselves in authority in the future

We ask this through Jesus Christy your son

 

Amen