Sermon for 17 November 2002, 8.00am Communion, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet, published on www.trikeshed.com

Bible readings: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 25:14-30

A new word is emerging for a criminal who relentlessly pursues his or her own pleasure or gratification, who kills and maims children – and hundreds suffer at their hands every year – and yet who believes he (and it is usually a he) is not doing anything wrong. That might sound like a description of a paedophile. It may be, but the word is one that is current in the road safety and traffic campaigning community – speedophile. That may sound like a sick joke, but I make no apology for it – it’s very serious. Today is designated the day of remembrance for road crash victims – 25 million of them in the last 100 years or so. Speedophilia is a terrible disease in our society – it’s not just breaking speed limits (though that’s part of it), it’s the whole attitude of "get out of my way" and the cocooned and arrogant unawareness of the vulnerable road user. We may or may not worry about our own safety on the roads, but the most telling statistic is this: the chances are that one person in today’s congregation will at some stage kill someone with their car. We are in a right mess on this issue. Driving seems to be the one remaining area where good, otherwise law-abiding, people will openly admit to and even boast about breaking the law.

Maybe if anything good comes from this sorry state of affairs, it is that it reminds us that the distinction between criminals and "the rest of us" can actually be a bit blurred. Which might perhaps help us in the other special designation of today and this week - Prisons Week, an occasion that is made rather more poignant by the death this week of one of our most notorious prisoners, Myra Hindley. We are called in this week to pray for prisoners and the victims of their crimes, to remember that even the worst of criminals are loved by God and need our care and attention; many are themselves victims and there we have a vicious circle, but one which the grace and forgiveness of God can break. Victims again. Victims of road crashes, victims of crime, victims of circumstance, victims of miscarriages of justice, victims of overcrowded prisons.

Whenever we think about victims another phrase comes to mind – victim blaming. Why is it that whenever someone suffers there is someone else ready to blame the victim? So many victims have the finger of blame pointed at them – rape victims, asylum seekers, pedestrians, the poor, the unemployed. Why do we do this? There is part of an answer in our Gospel reading. Now in this year of the gift and loan scheme and not long after Harvest, not to mention multiple talent shows, there might not seem to be much left to say about the parable of the talents. But let’s focus on that poor man, the one who was given the least, who feared his master, hid his talent in the ground and for his efforts had it taken away. He is a victim but we’re not asked to be sympathetic to him. He brought it upon himself, didn’t he? And Jesus’ concluding words, For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him, seem very harsh. Is this really the Gospel we subscribe to? It is harsh, but there’s a real truth there that both good and evil each feed on themselves. Evil gives rise to evil and good gives rise to good. So this almost seems to justify our habit of victim blaming.

Almost, but not quite. Two more things need to be said that come from our Bible readings today.

The first is that those three men with their talents were each free to do as they wished with the money. It was in their hands whether to start an upward or a downward spiral. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven was like this parable because he knew that there were some people who would get stuck in a victim mentality, who would not acknowledge the free gift of life that God had given them.

And the second point is from our Epistle reading. This first letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest part of the New Testament, perhaps only 20 years from the time of Jesus, but already the followers of Christ had seen a lot of suffering. And Paul says, God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. For all that our faith is based on suffering, God does not actually wish us to be victims, cowed and helpless, of anyone or anything. Instead we are to open our eyes and put upon us the armour of God. We need have no fear of that vicious circle, of the little we have being taken away like in the parable of the talents, because we have been given so much and by God’s grace we will use it to bring more goodness, to build that upward spiral. A very wise lady said something very memorable two weeks ago. It is that when someone does good to us, our calling is to repay that goodness but not necessarily back to the same person. Instead, we can pass it on to others, we can allow it to ripple further and wider than before.

So dear friends, we need not fear the vicious circle, and we need not fear the victim-blaming culture and we need not indulge in the victim-blaming culture – there is after all a Victim who has already taken all the blame. This is what our Lord Jesus has given us, as we say prayers for road crash victims, and for prisoners and those affected by them; victims they are, victims we may be in our turn, but we do not need to blame ourselves, or them, or God. God does not wish his people to suffer, he delights when we overcome with joy and when we help to build that virtuous circle which is his Kingdom, whose citizenship we now proclaim as we share the bread and wine together.

© Mike Knee, 2002

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