THE NEW GUINEA MARTYRS

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SEPTEMBER 2nd, 2007

Hebrews 13:8 "Remember your leaders - those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith."

Today's Epistle is the conclusion to the readings from Hebrews over the past few weeks. Last week our Epistle reading talked about heaven being a festival, with millions of angels and saints attending a great banquet - and it tied in with the Gospel reading of the image of heaven as a banquet. In fact, Jesus said it was a great feast to which everyone is invited. Today's Gospel and Epistle continue this theme of heaven as a great banquet.

The Gospel today begins with what seems to be some practical advice from Jesus about a dinner party - about not taking the most important seat least you be moved further down the table. But when we look at this in detail, we see that Jesus develops it into something more. For the marriage feast is an image of heaven. And in heaven there is no place for pride or worldly importance. Jesus he had observed how people had behaved at that feast trying to have the important seats because they thought they were important. And we are no different - are we not? When we have a dinner party, we usually invite people we like and people who are important to us. Jesus turns this around by telling us to invite society’s cast-offs - the people we would not usually invite.

And why does he do this? Because of course it is an image of heaven. When we get to heaven we will be sharing that great feast with everyone, including people we don't necessarily get on with - so we might as well get used to it now.

The Epistle takes all this one step further. In the Epistle it suggests that when we minister to the poor, the unloved, and the down-trodden, some how we are in the divine presence - and Jesus is there with them. This calls to mind our Lord's own words: "In as much as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me".

In Hebrews we have this interesting text: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares". This immediately calls to mind Genesis chapter 18, when Abraham is visited by three angels. He entertains them with food and drink though hardly recognizing them as angels until after they prophesy the birth of Isaac. And in this incident of Abraham entertaining the three angels, we also have the image of heaven as a banquet attended by angels, archangels and saints.

The connection between heaven and the Eucharist is obvious to us - for here we not only share an earthly banquet of bread and wine, which is an image of the heavenly banquet. But it also a foretaste of heaven - a sample given to us mere mortals Sunday by Sunday, as underlined by the words we say at every Mass: "Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven". Here is the gate of heaven - and it is opened just a little for us to look in and see. Today's Epistle underlines this doctrine of the communion of saints finishing with the declaration: "Remember your leaders, consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith".

You could not get a more simple explanation of the doctrine of the communion of saints than what we find in Hebrews. Remember your leaders, consider their life, imitate their faith. It is the tradition that every Episcopal Church is dedicated to a saint or a mystery of the faith. But here at All Saints' we are fortunate not to have just one saint, but all the saints. Most parishes just have one patron saint as their title - we have the whole lot. And there are millions of them. Just think - all that prayer going up in heaven from all of God's holy ones on our behalf for us here at All Saints' Church, San Diego. It is a wonderful concept - but there is a drawback. Here we don't have one particular image to focus on - we don't have a Saint Mark, a Saint Paul, a Saint Timothy. We do have Blessed Mary, of course, who is the mother of all the faithful and queen of all the saints. But we have to be content with the generic All Saints’.

In our weekly calendar we commemorate men and women in every age, and generation, and place, whom the Church designates as holy. But there is a danger here too. Just seeing their name in the weekly bulletin does not necessarily bring them close to us. Sometimes they feel remote - even unreal and unrelated to our modern lifestyle. So let me today tell you about two within living memory that we can identify with.

Today in our Episcopal calendar is the day we remember the New Guinea martyrs. These were twelve Anglican Missionaries killed by the Japanese in New Guinea, at the height of the war in the pacific in 1942. World War II - particularly the battle in the pacific - is something still enshrined in the memories of many people who live in this city and make up our congregation. In fact, for me as an Australian, the war in the pacific looms large in my memory. It cemented the strong relationship of friendship and affection, between the United States and Australia all those years ago. 65 years ago, as the Japanese pushed further south in their desire to conquest the Pacific. they invaded New Guinea and they were faced by Australian and American troops.

Growing up in the 1950's, I was captivated by the deeds of the American and Australian service men and women, in that theater of war. But even more so was I captivated by the courage of our own Anglican Missionaries.

In 1942, as the Japanese advanced, the Anglican Bishop of Papua New Guinea, Bishop Philip Strong, advised all his staff (especially the ex-patriates) to leave their missionary posts. He himself was attacked by Japanese planes as he visited the various mission posts along the coast of New Guinea. But many of the missionaries would not desert their people or their missions. Thus the twelve who are remembered today were captured and were killed - purely because, in obedience to Christ, they would not abandon their people or their work. What is significant is that they were just ordinary Christians - people like you and I. Five of them were young priests, two were young nurses, two were young teachers, one was a builder, and two were young Papuan evangelists. They had ordinary names - there was nothing particularly special about them, apart from the fact that they were missionaries.

Growing up in Adelaide, South Australia I was particularly impressed by the fact that one of the women had come from a neighboring parish - a nurse who had gone from her parish to do Missionary service for the Church.

They were all killed in different circumstances.

Two of the priests were saying Sunday Mass when they were told that the Japanese were advancing and that they should flee. But like good priests, they refused to stop the Mass once they had started it and they continued. The Japanese came and the priests were killed - they would not desert their altar, or their Christ. It puts to shame our often weak commitment to worship.

But it is two of the women I want to tell you about this morning. Their names were May and Mavis - two women in their early twenties. They were the teacher and the nurse at the Gona Mission station. They were ordered to flee, but Bishop Strong in his wonderful war-time diaries records that they pleaded with him: "Don't move us from here, let us stay - who will care for the children?" When Bishop Strong replied that he didn't know what would happen, maybe even death, they replied: "We are in God's hands. If He calls us to suffer, we are ready to suffer. We must do his will!" May and Mavis were captured, and on the beach at Gona they were beheaded in the Japanese fashion. We can hardly imagine what it must have been like for those two young women to kneel on the beach - not to receive Holy Communion, but the blade of the Japanese sword.

How wonderful, then, that in today's psalm we have this verse: "Light shines in the darkness for the upright." And again: "The righteous will be kept in everlasting remembrance.”

The link between Heaven and the Mass is real and strong. Therefore with angels and archangels, with May and Mavis, and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name.

And as the writer to the Hebrews says: "Remember your leaders - those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith."