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Sermon November 5 2006
All Saint’s / Parehaka / Guy Fawkes
Preaching from Rev 8:1-5 and Heb 12:1-8
“Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.”
Still being in my first year of this whole minister-thing, I’m not sure if today is a rare day or not – with Guy Fawkes, All Saint’s Sunday, and Parihaka remembrance day all falling on the same Sunday. Guy Fawkes and Parihaka always go together, because those 2 events both happened on 5th Nov back in history; but for Protestants All Saint’s moves around each year, being celebrated on the first Sunday after Nov 1st.
Some Protestants start getting edgy when saints are mentioned! As you all know, Amber my wife is Catholic, and when we married we decided to take a patron saint for our marriage – Hildegaard of Bingen.
Hildegaard was a nun who lived 1,000yrs ago in Germany. She was an amazing woman. Being female she hadn’t been to school, but she educated herself, becoming one of the greatest scientists and theologians of her time. With Amber being a scientist, and myself being a theologian, she was a good match for us. Plus, the added bonus of having a Hildegaard-themed wedding was that she did some amazing artwork which we used on the invitations and in the service, and she wrote some beautiful music which we also played in the church.
She was a herbalist as well and apparently some of her recipes have survived, but we didn’t quite go as far as trying to get the caterers to make them for the wedding breakfast afterwards.
Some of my staunch Protestant friends though were quite surprised that we’d done this, that I’d followed this dodgy Catholic tradition and taken a patron saint for my marriage. I tried to excuse it by explaining that it isn’t actually a Catholic tradition at all, that it was an idea that we thought up ourselves; and that Hildegaard isn’t officially a saint in the Catholic church anyway.
For, as you may know, the Catholic and Orthodox churches have a special category of Christians who have died and gone before us that they call saints. There are a whole lot of criteria people have to fulfill to be declared a saint, and they are then upheld as role-models for believers today. Hildegaard was considered, but it seems she didn’t meet those criteria.
Protestants don’t do that though, that was one of the practices we got rid of during the Reformation. For Protestants, all believers are saints.
As we’ve heard this morning, the word ‘saint’ is found in the Bible several times, and it’s literal meaning is “the holy ones” - Protestants believe that all Christians, when they have their sins washed away by the blood of Christ, are made holy. Therefore, all Christians are saints (including Hildegaard! And including everyone in this room).
BUT “Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot.”
There are some differences between Protestants and Catholics, and for most of the last 400yrs relationships between the 2 have been a bit nasty. This is the background to Guy Fawkes day – a day traditionally set aside by the English to say nasty things about the Pope and to celebrate burning Catholics. However, regardless who is a saint and who isn’t, this practice of setting aside believers who have gone before as role-models for our faith is supported in scripture. As we heard, Heb 12:1 says…
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…"
The cloud of witnesses is explained in chpt 11 which goes right through the OT, highlighting the greats of the faith and the example they set for us: from Abel, to Noah, to Moses, to Rahab, to David. They are held up to us as examples we can learn from and imitate.
When I was younger I used to think of them as a literal cloud of dead people above me, watching everything that I did. So, when I did things that I was ashamed of that made me doubly humiliated ‘cos I thought they’d all seen it too. Now I’m not sure. Maybe they are up there… watching me… but maybe they have better things to do.
But regardless, God is always present with me, and the call from verses 2-3 remains…
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart."
Hebrews calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus the perfecter of our faith, but also to remember the saints who have gone before us. In NZ we have a very short history of Christianity in this country, but we still have a good number of saints, of Christians who have gone before us and lived inspiring lives faithful to the gospel – Christians who I think we should remember. The Maori of Parihaka are among them, and so I want to take some time to remember them today – which is also Parihaka day.
The Maori of Parihaka probably weren’t orthodox Christians. If the Presbyterian church had made their leaders sit a theology exam they probably would’ve failed, but if they’d been given a Bible quiz they probably would’ve done better than any of us here.
During the wars between the English and the Maori the missionaries were withdrawn back to the European towns, so the Maori were left with many Bibles but with few teachers. This is when their own prophets arose to fill the gap.
In Taranaki a new religion began called the Hau Haus. They believed that their rituals made them safe from bullets during battle, and so charged fearlessly against the British – naturally they didn’t last too long though – and, as that religion declined, the prophet Te Whiti began his ministry; preaching and calling his people to a more Bible-based faith. He gathered a community at Parihaka in Taranaki, and although he never built a church there, he knew and preached the Word of God, and his teaching and inspiration was significantly from scripture.
He had been taught to read and write by missionaries, and devoted his life to proclaiming a better way – the gospel of peace. Preaching and living out faith and non-violence in a time of war and hatred.
He gathered other leaders to his cause including Tohu, and a chief called Titokowaru. Titokowaru became very committed, preaching the gospel of peace around Taranaki, and leading peace marches down the main street of Wanganui and other European towns. Unfortunately though, land confiscations by the Settler government continued; and there was a nasty atrocity where a settler general, feeling that his honour had been slighted, attacked a Maori village which had made peace and laid down their arms. Many people were killed and the village was burned.
Despite this tension, at Parihaka Te Whiti and Tohu held to the gospel of peace as the only answer for the Maori people. Te Tokowaru however, had lost relatives in that massacre. He became disillusioned and turned to violence, seeking revenge. One night he gathered some warriors and attacked a fort, killing some soldiers and sparking the 3rd Taranaki War.
Te Tokowaru’s forces went from victory to victory, defeating the settler armies several times. Many chiefs joined him sensing glory and a chance to get revenge against the white man. I can only imagine the pressure on the Maori of Parihaka from their relatives to give up on the way of non-violence and join in the war – but they didn’t. They kept to the gospel of peace.
Finally the day of the last battle arrived. Patea was the last European settlement left in Sth Taranaki, and the 2 armies dug in facing each other. In the morning the Colonial forces attacked, only to find that the Maori had gone. Te Tokowaru’s warriors had disappeared into the bush, no-one knows why.
So, Sth Taranaki was re-occupied by the Europeans, angry because of those who had died at the hands of Te Tokowaru. Again they began confiscating and selling off the land, but there in the middle of it all was Parihaka. Around 2,000 Maori lived there then, including Te Whiti and Tohu, former friends of Te Tokowaru.
The settlers didn’t understand their commitment to the gospel of peace, and they were scared of them. So, tragically, on the 5th November 1881 in went the army.
But, the people of Parihaka didn’t defend themselves, they kept to the peaceful teachings of Christ and Te Whiti. They welcomed the soldiers, sending their children out to meet them with white feathers, symbols of peace, while their women came behind singing hymns of praise. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a happy ending. The children were pushed aside, the village was burned, the surrounding land was confiscated, and many of the men were rounded up and shipped off to forced labour camps around the country – mostly in Dunedin. They were never charged with a crime and some were held up to 18 yrs without trial – many died in captivity.
Because of his sufferings Tohu began to question the gospel of peace, but Te Whiti never did. Those who were able returned and attempted to re-build Parihaka as a place of peace, as it stands today – a place of hope and inspiration for our country, and for Christians the world over. They suffered for their faith and the word of God, and some of them died – but it is my hope that theirs will be resurrection to life in the world to come.
So, “Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot.”
Let us remember to fix our eyes on Christ, as the book of Hebrew’s calls us to do – the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross. But, also, let us remember the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, those saints who have gone before and can be role-models for us today.
And, among them, let us remember Te Whiti and the Maori of Parihaka, who held fast to the gospel of peace and endured – despite their sufferings.
And, as we burn lots of gunpowder, setting off our fireworks tonight in memory of Guy Fawkes, let us also remember that this day in 1881, because of their commitment to the Word of God and non-violence, no shots were fired and no gunpowder was burned in the fall of Parihaka.
I think that’s a much more inspiring thing to remember this 5th of November than burning Catholics…