Sermon for Trinity 5 (Proper 10)
Sunday 12th July 2009
St Cuthbert’s, Benfieldside
Amos 7. 7-15
Ephesians 1. 3-14
Mark 6. 14-29
Saints sometimes crop up in the strangest of places,
don‟t they!
In the Outer Hebrides I‟ve encountered chapels
dedicated to obscure Celtic saints like St Moluag and
St Brianan on distant headlands and remote islands.
Last month, while exploring the Pyrenees, in the High
Aragon region of Spain, we came across a strange
little chapel, way off the beaten track, in a place
called the Canon de Anisclo. This is an area not much
frequented by tourists. Most people who come here
are serious walkers who want to climb the high
peaks, such as Monte Perdido, or to explore the rivers
and waterfalls of the deep gorges between the
mountains.
To enter the Canon, or Gorge, of Anisclo is to
experience a landscape which could have come
straight out of „Lord of the Rings‟! From the narrow
lane which runs almost the full length of the gorge,
you can peer down from a dizzy height into the clear
blue rushing waters of the mountain stream far
below.
Or you can gaze upwards, between the rocky
overhangs and the dappled green of the birch trees,
to the dizzy heights of the cliffs above and the eagles
circling in the cloudless sky.
The tiny chapel deep in this stunning place is
dedicated to St Urbez and it marks the place where
he lived, for a time, about 12 hundred years ago.
Urbez, it seems, was a Frenchman, born in Bordeaux
in 702. At the age of 15 he was captured and taken
to Spain, where he suffered first at the hands of
invaders from Galicia and later at the hands of the
Moors. At length he escaped and fled into the
Pyrenees, where he chose to become a hermit, living
in a cave and dedicated to a solitary life of
contemplation.
But this was not to be!
Urbez soon gained a reputation amongst the local
people for his loving care of anyone who was sick or
in need. When Christian refugees, escaping from the
Moorish invasion, fled into the mountains, it was
Urbez who gave them comfort and support.
Eventually, at the age of 50, he was ordained priest
and continued to serve the people of the Vio Valley
until his death at the age of 103.
Urbez was never officially canonised. But he was held
in such high esteem by his neighbours that they built
a chapel in the cave where he had lived. People from
the local churches still, to this day, visit this isolated
spot four times a year to remember him and to pray.
It often seems to happen, doesn‟t it, that people who
desire only a quiet life for themselves are nudged by
God into quite a different situation.
Take as another example, Amos, who‟s the subject of
our first reading today.
Amos was a simple countryman. He lived about 750
years before the birth of Jesus, during the reign of
King Jeroboam in Israel. Amos came from the small
town of Tekoa in the hill country of Judah, about ten
miles south of Jerusalem. He was, by trade, a
shepherd, caring for his flock in the hills around his
home, and travelling to the lower country on a
seasonal basis to tend the „sycomore‟ trees. (They are
a kind of fig tree – not to be confused with our own
sycamore trees!) From this homely existence, God
called Amos to carry His message of judgement and
justice to the northern kingdom of Israel.
Amos heard the voice of God as a mighty roar from
Zion.
“Hear the voice of God!” cried Amos. “You have sold
the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of
sandals. You have trampled the head of the poor into
the dust of the earth, and pushed the afflicted out of
the way.”
Israel had enjoyed a long period of prosperity. But
beneath its affluence it was rotten to the core. The
rich and powerful had ignored God‟s call to care for
the poor and disadvantaged.
And so Israel must be punished.
God‟s warning to his people was: “The high places of
Israel shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of
Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the
house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
This was the stern message which Amos, the simple
countryman, carried to Bethel, the most sacred place
of Israel, some 25 miles to the north of his home.
And he delivered it, not quietly amongst those who
were sympathetic, but boldly to one of the most
powerful people in the country, the priest Amaziah –
the priest who had the ear of the King. When the
priest treated Amos with contempt and dismissed him
you might have expected him to be quaking in his
shoes.
But Amos stood his ground.

“All I ever wanted was a quiet life” he cried. “I‟m a
shepherd, not a prophet. It was God who called me to
speak out for him.”
But Amos‟s courageous actions almost pale into
insignificance alongside those of John the Baptist in
our Gospel reading today.
John was Jesus‟ cousin. He was rather a strange
person. You‟ll remember that the Bible tells us that he
dressed in camel‟s hair, with a leather belt round his
waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He was a
prophet.
John‟s charismatic personality and outspoken ways
both attracted and challenged people. And he didn‟t
pull any punches!
At that time, the Jewish ruler was Herod – known as
Herod the Tetrarch or Herod Antipas. Herod divorced
his first wife and married Herodias, who had been his
brother‟s wife. John dared to denounce this second
marriage as unlawful. Now, Herod came from a family
of cruel and evil people. He was also very powerful.
And he reacted to John‟s criticism – and to his wife‟s
displeasure - by arresting John and putting him into
prison. It seems that Herod was a weak man, rather
than an evil man. There was a part of him that
admired John the Baptist – or perhaps he was a little
afraid of him. But sadly, his wife and his step-
daughter tricked him into arranging for John to be
beheaded.
John the Baptist was a man of great courage. He
wasn‟t afraid to speak out for God even against a
powerful ruler. John lived for the truth and he died for
it.
It‟s tempting, isn‟t it, to wish for a quiet life!
But it‟s clear from the stories we read in the Bible,
and in the history of the Church, that God values the
contributions of ordinary men and women who can
become bold for Him. We can follow the example set
by Amos and John the Baptist and St Urbez by being
prepared to act and speak out for God – to do and
say what is right and necessary.
God calls us to „seek the common good‟ – to make a
difference to the world we live in today, to influence
people in authority and work for positive changes in
our own communities and throughout the world.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote:
“The Church of God has to be the salt and light of the
world. We are the hope of the hopeless, through the
power of God.”
And his words were echoed by Cardinal Basil Hume:

“Whenever the poor are afflicted or neglected, or

whenever human freedom and dignity is not
respected, then the Church has a duty to sound a
prophet‟s note.”

There‟s no shortage of problems in the world today.

We see them all around us on the television and in
the papers. I feel sure that God would want us to
speak out about war, climate change, political
corruption, Fair Trade, third world poverty and
hunger – and many other concerns.

We who know the voice of God – the voice of love

and compassion and justice – are called to become
his voice in this world. If we can all speak out with
courage and conviction, then the voice of God may
once again be heard – as Amos heard it – as a mighty
roar.