The Fifteen Sunday after Trinity
20th September 2009

True Leadership

"Silly but engaging". That was one critic's verdict on the BBC series The Tudors. Jonathan Rhys Williams does not look like Henry VIII, whose physique must be the best known of any monarch and the appearance of the women in the series would have outraged the real Tudors. Yet there are some wonderful performances in this series, eg James Frayn as Thomas Cromwell, and even if the series moves events and people about to suit its line, in my opinion it has one very significant merit: it takes a great deal of time over the complex religious issues of the reign of Henry VIII. It succeeds in clarifying something that people often fail to understand: Henry VIII never intended to set up a new church: rather he wanted authority over his bit of it. Rather than treat the religious question as something to be set aside in favour of lush costumes and marital intrigues, the series shows how serious people were about what they believed, and how under the King's claim to ecclesiastical authority those who favoured more reform and those favoured the catholic way sought to win favour with the King and pull him in their direction. In a recent episode the reformist Cromwell, who is beginning to see that he has had his day and must now pay for it, says bitterly, "The King would have neither Pope nor Bishop tell him what to do in his own realm, yet he always is a good catholic". It is from this perspective that we see just how significant it is that the king's beloved son is a frail child, while his grown up daughter Mary - full of bitterness over her own and her mother's treatment - is seen by the catholic party as the hope for their restoration. In my opinion the series succeeds in showing just how terrible it was to live in those times, not knowing which way the King's mind would go.

Jesus' advice to his followers is to shun the quest for leadership and greatness and instead to seek only to serve. In Henry VIII's time that would not save them from the block - it did not save Thomas More - but it would save them from the betrayal of self and integrity to which many were forced by fear or ambition.

We also live in complex times and we can be prompted to act out of fear, frustration, the desire to win. But if we follow Jesus' command to seek only to serve, then we will tread safely. We will be stepping in his footsteps and that is the safest way.

Amen

© PCC St Martin's and St Paul's Canterbury 2008 - 2009