Sermon by
The Revd Ian M Delinger St Clement’s,
Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester |
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Play “Live to Tell” from 1:41 to 3:10
| Last Sunday, after the services, I went off to Cardiff for a spectacular show! I saw Madonna in concert at the Millennium Stadium with 59,000 other very enthusiastic fans as she kicked off the European part of her tour of her latest album entitled Confessions from the Dance Floor. I had never before been to a concert of such a big name, and it was totally worth the cost of the ticket, and the 8 hours of driving. For 22 years, Madonna has been entertaining billions of people, and at 48 years old, she is no less fun to watch, and no less shocking with what she does on stage. Madonna is an open critic of the Church, and has mortified the Church with some of her on-stage antics. This concert tour is entitled Confessions, and at the London concerts this week, there are confessional boxes with video cameras in them dotted around Wembly Arena. The best confessions will be part of the end of the concert. Taping confessions and playing them at the end of a concert isn’t necessarily that shocking. After all, reality TV is the in thing these days, and these confessional boxes certainly give no impression that a priest sits on the other side of the wall. What did upset some in the Church was her performance in the middle of the concert. Singing her famous ballad, Live to Tell, from 20 years ago, which we just heard, Madonna entered the stage strapped to a 20ft high mirrored cross which slowly raised from a flat position to fully upright. You can see the picture of her on the cross in the Pew Sheet. Madonna sang the entire ballad while strapped to the cross.
While she sang Live to Tell, images of poverty in the developing world were shown on video screens, while a large digital counter ticked away to the number 12 million. The song ended just as the counter reached 12 million, and as Madonna was unshackled and lowered from the cross, the video screens displayed only the words: 12 million African children have been orphaned by AIDS. Then appeared the website addresses of AIDS charities, including the Clinton Foundation. The next song she sang is my favorite from the latest album called Sorry. I wanted to play that before the sermon, but it’s a bit too upbeat for 10.45 in the morning. But its lyrics really hit home for me, and Madonna used the song to bring to light the injustice being perpetuated by world leaders. Some of the lyrics are as follows:
Images of third world poverty were flashed on the giant screens together with messages about AIDS and environmental damage caused by humans. Photos of prominent world leaders were also shown, including Tony Blair, President Bush, Vladmir Putin, Pope Benedict XVI, Condaleeza Rice, Sadaam Hussein, Kim Jong, and the Chinese leader. During the final chorus of the song, Madonna stuck up one particular finger to all the people whom she sees as causing more harm than good. And during her costume change, the song played in a re-mix with big red words on the video screens: Don’t Talk, Don’t Speak, interspersed with more images of global oppression, and at the very end in all capitals STOP HATRED. Why am I telling you so much about the Madonna concert on Transfiguration Sunday? Precisely because, as what I interpret as Madonna making very clear, we all have a responsibility to transform this world to stop poverty, oppression, corruption, and most of all hatred. Christ was transfigured so that we might understand His power and authority in mandating that we transform His world. At the end of the video montage with all of the oppression, poverty and environmental damage in the world, Madonna bravely, I think, flashed the words to Matthew 25:35-40 on all the video screens:
She even included the chapter and verse reference. This was in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in front of 59,000 people! In my mind, presenting this scripture at the year’s biggest global concert tour, Madonna is taking seriously what God said in today’s Gospel: Listen to Him…and she’s sharing it with 2MM people around the world. As pensioners, as students, as those in the professional world, for those in wage earning jobs, as Christians, we each have a sphere of influence to transform this world. Madonna was criticized by conservative Christian leaders for her being raised on a mirrored cross during the concert, including criticism by someone from the conservative Evangelical Alliance purporting to speak on behalf of the Church of England. He doesn’t speak for me, and the cross is a symbol of what Christ did for us, but the cross was not the form of death exclusively for Jesus Christ, nor was He the last to die by the cross. I actually went to the concert, and support Madonna in her response: "Jesus taught that we should love thy neighbor," said in a statement after her first concert in Los Angeles. Madonna is rightfully criticized by the Church in some of her antics, but she also rightfully criticizes the Church. We are the church, those of us assembled today. We read throughout our Bible and believe through our faith in a redeeming God that we are to help this world be a better place. As individuals and as the Body of Christ, we quite often fail. Making the world a better place starts with each of us as an individual. We all have a responsibility, and we all have our own way to do it. Madonna does it in her own way, which is sometimes controversial, sometimes seemingly offensive. She may be rich and influential, but she is trying. We feel powerless, but we are not. We come here every week to be transfigured by the power of the Eucharist. That engagement with Jesus Christ is our mandate to go out and transform this world into one where there is no more hatred, but only love. We are transfigured by the transfiguring power of Jesus in the Eucharist. We are then sent out to transform the world, to live to tell…to live to tell the secrets we have learned about the lies that have been told which lead to people suffering, to not hide secrets or be blinded to see what is right in front of us. We sometimes spend too much time making dwellings, so to speak, and miss the point of how we are to live our lives as Christians. We at St Clement’s have done a lot of good. We had a successful campaign to raise £2,000 to buy farm animals for a needy community in Namibia. We collect food for the homeless and hungry. We collected for Christian Aid. And there is always more that we can do. We can start with our own lives and homes and neighborhoods. With the breakdown of society and communities, as individuals, we can get to know our neighbors and build community. Each of us has the potential to do a lot of good or a lot of bad as individuals. We each have the power to transform others and communities by not being destructive, and to care for and show compassion to all whom we meet. Befriending your neighbors may not stop worldwide hatred, but it is a start, and perhaps you befriending the boy down the street might just prevent a suicide bombing or a theft or a benefit fraud or prostitution which might have happened decades in the future. Just because we cannot change the world overnight by ourselves does not mean that we give up altogether. We go on, transfigured by Christ’s Transfiguration, so that we can transform this world, bit by bit. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. Those who criticized Madonna for singing a song on a giant mirrored cross should have gone to the concert. As a Christian and as a priest, I stood there stunned that just a glimpse of the Gospel message, a glimpse of what Jesus was about and what we are about as Christians got showcased in the middle of a concert by the world’s biggest music diva. Everything she sang about, the images she showed, the dancing, and the non-verbal messages were directly in line with Christian teaching. Everything! Madonna’s 60 concerts will reach approximately 2MM people all across North America, Europe and Japan. She had the bravery to hang herself on a cross, the symbol of Roman persecution, and send a message to those 2MM people that there are millions of other people in this world who are suffering, and we have a role to play in changing that. Now, Madonna, who has gone through as many religions as she has images over the last two decades, may not be saying, “Look…this is a facsimile of Christ’s suffering, and people are suffering in the world.” But looking at it with Christian eyes, she did. And if you know anything of Madonna, she’s not stupid. She knows exactly what the Christian implications are by doing what she did, and she didn’t quote the Gospel of Matthew because it was suggested to her by a close friend. Madonna used the fundamentals of the Church against itself, showing us Christians how we need to do more. She did her best to transform the 2MM people who will see that concert into people who will contribute to AIDS charities, who will work toward stopping corruption, who will work toward ending hatred…and she did it hanging on a cross. As the title of the concert Confessions indicates, we should confess that we can do a lot more. Having been there, Madonna’s use of the cross and of the Bible quote made Christianity more relevant to the 2MM people who will have seen her than most parish churches have who serve the 2MM communicants who sit in Church of England this morning. Madonna always uses an “in your face” approach, which we as Christians are far too often reluctant to do, whether with outsiders or with ourselves. Madonna did the Church a favor. And her critics should be thanking her, and using that to the Church’s advantage in the media. “Madonna wins one for the Church” should be the headline, and let Madonna be on the defensive, if indeed she felt she needed to. Or “Madonna uses Christian imagery to get people to donate to AIDS relief charities.” Madonna has already given $3MM to AIDS charities. Her response to the criticism was: "I don't think Jesus would be mad at me and the message I'm trying to send." After all, she quoted Jesus, and our reading today says “Listen to Him.” It seems quite clear that Madonna is, and has encouraged millions of others around the world to do the same. Madonna has transformed herself several times over the last two decades. And maybe Christ wasn’t her main motivating source. But Christ is our motivating factor, and we come forward to be transfigured by the Eucharist this morning, to be transfigured by Jesus’ body which was broken on that cross, and whose blood was shed on that cross…all so that we might be transfigured in order that we might so our part to transform the world. Play "Live to Tell" from 3:35 to end. |